Jackie Holms

I enjoy getting out into the landscape and experiencing the elements that shape it. I like to gather sensory information on location through sketching, painting, photography and writing to take back to my studio where I seek to get the image out of my ‘eye’ and onto the canvas.

My painting is a process of sensory map making - how the landscape is glimpsed: the light and colours; the textures and feeling; the smell - all of which contribute to the visceral portrayal of a sense of place. My paintings are often accompanied by original prose poems which augment the painting’s experience.

My paintings draw inspiration from the dramatic Scottish coastline, the quality of light, crystal seas, rugged mountains and arching skies, as well as the forms, colours and textures of the environment as the natural world slowly reclaims and repairs. I am fascinated by the edges where cultivation meets wilderness, the tiny cracks where life thrives and ancient traces of past habitations hold out against the relentless onslaught of the elements.

My work is largely intuitive, the act of painting starts a process of discovery and acts to build a stronger sense of experience of the landscape in question. Working with mixed media, multiple l...

Holms’s work emerges from the chromatic and structural lineage of the Edinburgh College of Art, shaped by the tonal discipline of Sir William Gillies, the expressive colour of Robin Philipson, and the lyrical intelligence of David Michie. Studying at ECA in the early 90s, she absorbed the atmospheric drama of John Houston and the material sensitivity of Glen Onwin, developing a painterly language in which colour operates as both expression and structure. Her surfaces carry a sculptural presence — layered, worked, and physically felt — while her compositions explore the emotional landscape of place and memory. Through this synthesis of colour, gesture, and material depth, Holms extends the Edinburgh tradition into a contemporary voice that is at once introspective, atmospheric, and richly painterly.

Current/Future Exhibitions​
VAS Biennial 30x30 - December 2025 to January 2026
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Past Exhibitions​
2025 - Big Art Show 2025, The Art Department Paisley
2025 - VAS 30x30 Dalkeith Country House and Palace
2025 - ​Upright Gallery/Braid Bowling Club
2025 - Borders Art Fair/VAS 30x30
2024 - SSA 30x30
2024 - Big Art Show 2024, The Art Department, Paisley
2024 - An Talla Solais Members’ Show
2024 - CasildArt ‘EmpowerHER: Creativity, Courage & Magical Thinking’
2023 - SSA 30x30