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HSBIII	HSB	Holly Golson Bryan
Paintings on Wood

BIOGRAPHY

Growing up, my dad was a weekend painter (his words) and I sat in the studio (which is where I currently paint) on weekends at my little desk and played with the art materials. Going to Binders was always a very exciting trip with him, and I usually came home with a new set of markers or pencils or a how-to-draw book. This all fueled my interest in art, and both of my parents encouraged it. After school, art classes were a must, and through the years my talent was recognized and cultivated by my art teachers. It was never asked of me if I wanted to be an artist and I never asked myself that question. I already was, and I canÂ’t remember wanting to do anything else.
Holly Golson Bryan, a native Atlantan, was awarded the Kuzmicki-McCutchen Scholarship to attend The University of Georgia where she received a BFA in painting. As a student, she studied under Richard Olsen and James Herbert and participated in the studies abroad program in Cortona, Italy.
Holly is represented by The Vanderbilt Gallery in Nantucket and Naples, Mercury Artworks in Athens, and Mary Stanley Studio in Atlanta. She also was represented by The Abstein Gallery of Atlanta under the late Paul Abstein.
In addition, her work is found in the corporate collections of the King and Spalding Law Firm, the University of Georgia Complex Carbohydrate Research Center, and Management Psychology Group, PC. Private collectors include Michael Stipe and Mike Mills of R.E.M. Her work can also be seen in the recent box office release “Diary of a Mad Black Woman!”.
Holly works in acrylics on birch plywood panels in a unique abstract style she has been developing for the last seven years.


“The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.” I believe that probably everything has already been done, but we take our experiences and proceed to reinvent the world around us. Otherwise, it gets boring.

I believe a state of art is achieved through practice, experimentation, an appetite for looking and studying our environment as well as our inner psyche. Painting is as natural as breathing. The subject of a painting is as it appears, but the art is modified by what we bring to it. Mistakes are made (so we think) and the experience teaches us more than any academic training. Wonderful and exciting changes occur from the original vision to the final product.

Being an avid gardener, my muse is the natural world, where every color can be found in some plant or some animal, on land or at sea. I am interested in the movement of life, how it cycles and recycles. Gardening has certainly brought me closer to the beauty of our world and I am convinced this has led me to where I am in my work at this point.

My works stem from my desire to focus on texture and balance as the two main driving forces behind my process of creating abstract pieces. I explore color theory and what happens visually when colors are put next to or on top of one another. I explore composition: how one less or one more carved area transforms the entire piece, and how it feels to practice restraint or indulgence as the need arises. Whether through carved areas or painted ones, I aim to push the limits of the two-dimensional surface and achieve a sense of depth and movement that cannot be ignored.

These images explore the balanced relationships between areas painted and carved. It is through the violent process of gouging and scraping, cutting and sanding juxtaposed against the calmer, more delicate effect of the smooth painted areas which I arrive at the birth of a piece. At this point it should have a presence to stand on its own or in a group, and the work should speak for itself.

The paper pieces are an attempt to cleanse my palette, so to speak, and are a natural deviation from the wood for me. While not a permanent change in direction, they help me understand what I need to do to avoid getting too comfortable with my process of wood painting.

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