Oils – Karen Holloway

The scent of linseed oil comforts me. I smell linseed and I’m a child back in my parent’s basement with a fresh set of paint-by-number oil paints, losing track of time and space, swimming in color, soothed in the scent of that ancient flowering plant. When I first started painting, my goal was to stay inside the lines. That soon progressed to accurately capturing whatever I could see in the world. Eventually I felt a need to paint more quickly, and to communicate more immediacy and emotion through looser brush strokes. Below are a few of my favorites in no particular order. The creation of these pieces spans four decades and are all in private collections now. My linseed oil is packed away, leaving space for a practice of discovery with wax and fire. To see my current body of work, go to the Broken Crayon Collection.