Lucy and Barry Painting

My name is Holly Eva.I am named after a beach in Hawaii called Haliewa from my surfer dad Butch and mum loved it too. I am a full time artist living on the coal coast of Wollongong. Creating art as a contemporary expressionist intuitive painter has been my life for the past 18 years after completing my Diploma of Fine Arts in 2005. My work distinctively celebrates colour and marks, then I somehow try to calm things down almost like I'm trying to make some kind of sense out of the messy chaos I have created. Working under brilliant Australian artists has been a career highlight, and include Amanda Penrose Hart, Idris Murphy, Jo Bertini, Elisabeth Cummings and Ross Laurie. I am also very influenced by Ken Done. Currently,I’m working with Jumbled in Orange and also Gallery Alchemy in Milton. Each and every day I wake up, head to the studio and get covered in paint. I don't fully understand why this career has called me, but it sure is a definite calling. Art has become almost like an addiction, the desire to become a better painter is why I turn up in my studio five to six days per week, eight to ten hours of painting daily.. There is some sort of delight in the humiliation of painting that challenges me. What do I love doing? I really love drinking tea, I love my family, I love the easiness and the flow of a low key lifestyle, I love second hand pottery finds and potters and carpenters that make things with their hands, they are fascinating to me. I love the smell of a new car but happy to drive an old one. I love the old great painters like Matisse, Picasso and Frida Kahlo and I love listening to their wisdom about painting. I love peoples stories, I love people who have been knocked down to then find the courage to get back up. I love honesty most of all. I absolutely love Australia. When I paint there are no rules, I block out opinions and simply allow the art to respond to my soul. There is nothing else in my studio other than a response to something that I haven't quite figured out yet and then two question remain, what is this, and now what do I do.