Marie Holohan

Marie Holohan is a founding member of the Arts Ability Studio group at CUMAS. A meticulous painter, Marie’s work features surreal patterns and vibrant colours to create vivid, detailed paintings which build highly imaginative and dreamlike landscapes. The starting point for these paintings is usually a photographic image, but this is quickly discarded and her natural creativity leads her to depict vivid landscapes and strange new realities. Using acrylic on canvas, Marie’s primary concern is colour which she applies in controlled, linear patterns that lead the eye through the painting, tracing the dimensions of her created worlds. Marie fearlessly directs these colours, and although her application is controlled and precise, the work remains incredibly free and unforced, which serves to highlight her paint handling skills.

I started painting when Declan came – I had never painted before, that was my first time. I get pictures from different books to see what suits me, and I decide “I like that now, I’ll paint that” but then I do different colours, you know; pinks, greens, blues, yellows, purples, and I mix new colours with the paint.