Holly Lombardo

About the artist

I guess you could say I've been a painter my whole life.... I just didn't know it. I am a self-taught artist. I painted primarily with watercolors for almost 15 years. I now paint exclusively with acrylics and continue to be surprised with the vibrancy and effects I can create with mixing colors and their juxtaposition on the canvas. Because I attended an engineering school and did not take art after middle school, I paint with purposeful urgency, putting onto canvas the colors and textures I've noticed since I was a child.

When I am in the woods or near the ocean, I not only hear the sounds and smell the air, but I see colors. Growing up as a child in Brunswick, Maine, I have always noticed the colors in nature: the greens and greys in the rocks and ocean, the dappled sunlight on the trunks of the great pines, and the blues and purples in the shadows of the snow. It is this color palette that inspires my work. With each brush stroke I try to capture light and movement between colors, and I let my eyes dance over the canvas as I record nature’s artwork in my own way. Because I am self-taught, I have no constraints and paint freely with a freedom of expression and a curiosity for the colors I mix. When I look out the window during any season, I not only appreciate the majestic colors that mother nature has chosen for that day, I am also thinking about which colors to mix on my own palette to best capture the mood. I am driven by this freedom to express light and color and I eagerly await the outcome for every new canvas that I unwrap.

I am a mother of two beautiful daughters and I have worked both as a research scientist in the biotechnology industry and as a middle and high school math/science teacher. I enjoy sharing my passions with my students and colleagues. Painting is not only a means of creative expression for me, but also a way to share the colors and textures of nature that I have always loved.