Meet Brian Hollister

Today we’d like to introduce you to Brian Hollister.

Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
It was a little shy of 50 years ago that, as a Math major at UCLA, I took a painting class to satisfy an elective. My high school education was all college prep and I knew little about art or painting. Da Vinci, Michaelangelo, Van Gogh and Picasso were the only painters I was aware of. My painting class was taught by Charles Garabedian and he opened up a whole world for me; I threw myself completely into painting, changed my major to Fine Art, and have been painting ever since. I discarded figure painting when I took a painting class with Richard Diebenkorn who taught that the figure was only as important as everything else in the picture. My parents were avid campers and I spent my childhood summers in the outdoors gravitating towards the landscape. That exposure, combined with a Catholic upbringing, from which I developed a fondness for awe and majesty, established a foundation for my artistic practice.

Please tell us about your art.
I make oil paintings. The structural motif in my work was a response to visiting the great Italian cathedrals (Siena, Florence and Orvieto, for example) and seeing a connection to my beloved, layered landscapes of the Desert Southwest. It became a device on which to hang color and have less concern with shapes and composition. My palette is influenced by my regular travels into the wilderness, most often, but not limited to the desert. I have trekked all over the western United States, Iceland, New Zealand, the Dolomites in Italy, Scotland, Tasmania and Guatemala, etching into my subconscious the light and color of the various locales. This provides a foundation from which to start a painting. Ultimately, my work is about location and a sense of place. It is location that civilization has been built upon, that is, the places that allowed the cultures of the world to begin. Geography is the groundwork for our social existence and my paintings reference that, not as metaphor but as experience. In the end, everyone experiences art through their own devices. I strive to make paintings that never look the same every time they’re looked at.

We often hear from artists that being an artist can be lonely. Any advice for those looking to connect with other artists?
I would say connect with people. Develop your art by creating something that has meaning to you. Be open.

How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
I currently am unrepresented, so other than my website and Instagram (follow and lots of likes), arrange a studio visit.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.brianhollister.com
• Email: brian@brianhollister.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brianhollisterstudio/ AND https://www.instagram.com/brianhollister/

Image Credit:
Main photo: Eric Minh Swenson

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