Holly Ann Friesen
Holly Ann Friesen is a contemporary painter based in Kenora, Northwestern Ontario. She creates abstracted landscapes focusing on sky, forest and water – and the space around these.
Holly Ann Friesen - The essence of Nature
Date and place of birth
Holly Ann Friesen is a contemporary painter based in Kenora, Northwestern Ontario.
Background and Career
From her childhood in Manitoba, growing up on a farm in the Red River Valley, nature has always held a great fascination for Holly Ann. Before turning to the arts, she started her professional career as a scientific researcher in the field of genetics, a field that required a great deal of creativity, rigour and examination of concepts in the abstract. She applies these concepts to her art practice where subject matter is examined at a micro and macroscopic levels leading to the overall imagery. "There is a different experience viewing the natural world, and a painting, up close and from farther away."
Since 2010, she has shown her work in galleries and exhibitions across Canada.
Work and art
Holly Ann Friesen creates abstracted landscapes focusing on sky, forest and water – and the space around these.
Her art practice involves taking familiar objects or scenes and creating something new while maintaining a connection to the original object. Her goal is to create an emotional connection to the subject by focusing on the negative space in her initial concept. Light proves to be a fascinating point of reference in her works, where the plant world abounds.
“I use colour and shape to examine light and perspective in abstraction. I enjoy taking a familiar subject and creating something new. There is a promise of something more than what the eye first sees."
Strongly rooted in her surroundings, her work bears the stamp of her adopted region, indeed of the entire Canadian Shield; "This landscape is endlessly inspiring... it's a blend of rock, lake, trees and grand skies - reminiscent of my Prairie upbringing."
In her recognizable yet unique works, Holly Ann Friesen seeks to share her singular experience of the natural world and to draw the viewer into her wake, in search of an oasis or an elsewhere to discover. As such, the public is invited to examine her works from afar and close up to experience its full expression, to access the unknown and to discover the subject matter with a unique perspective.
Holly Ann Friesen is represented by the Au P'tit Bonheur Art Gallery since July 2021.
Holly Ann Friesen is a contemporary painter based in Kenora, Northwestern Ontario.
Background and Career
From her childhood in Manitoba, growing up on a farm in the Red River Valley, nature has always held a great fascination for Holly Ann. Before turning to the arts, she started her professional career as a scientific researcher in the field of genetics, a field that required a great deal of creativity, rigour and examination of concepts in the abstract. She applies these concepts to her art practice where subject matter is examined at a micro and macroscopic levels leading to the overall imagery. "There is a different experience viewing the natural world, and a painting, up close and from farther away."
Since 2010, she has shown her work in galleries and exhibitions across Canada.
Work and art
Holly Ann Friesen creates abstracted landscapes focusing on sky, forest and water – and the space around these.
Her art practice involves taking familiar objects or scenes and creating something new while maintaining a connection to the original object. Her goal is to create an emotional connection to the subject by focusing on the negative space in her initial concept. Light proves to be a fascinating point of reference in her works, where the plant world abounds.
“I use colour and shape to examine light and perspective in abstraction. I enjoy taking a familiar subject and creating something new. There is a promise of something more than what the eye first sees."
Strongly rooted in her surroundings, her work bears the stamp of her adopted region, indeed of the entire Canadian Shield; "This landscape is endlessly inspiring... it's a blend of rock, lake, trees and grand skies - reminiscent of my Prairie upbringing."
In her recognizable yet unique works, Holly Ann Friesen seeks to share her singular experience of the natural world and to draw the viewer into her wake, in search of an oasis or an elsewhere to discover. As such, the public is invited to examine her works from afar and close up to experience its full expression, to access the unknown and to discover the subject matter with a unique perspective.
Holly Ann Friesen is represented by the Au P'tit Bonheur Art Gallery since July 2021.
