I started painting when I turned 50. I had been living on Orcas since 1977 and was thoroughly in love with the surroundings. I loved to watch the blue on blue across the water at all times of the day. I never tired of watching it. When I turned 50, I decided to give myself permission to learn to paint and took watercolor classes. I found I loved painting those same blues on blues, learning to put down local areas and also those of my imagination. All of Orcas Island’s natural beauty was available for me to study and try to paint, over and over, adding other colors
to my palette as I learned.
I joined the Orcas Island Artworks in the late 1990s and have been a member ever since. I do mostly small paintings, bookmarks, and some larger paintings. In 2001, after 9/11, I started working on a series of Northwest themed mandala circles as a source of healing, training my brain to think in a different perspective and turning once again to my favorite blues on blue.
I have recently started to take classes in painting with acrylics and have tried my hand at some abstracts. I also make miniature 3 dimensional pieces of art and sculpture studios which reflect my love of both art and miniatures. But sitting down and pouring out a seascape of the islands around the San Juans is what really keeps me happily painting.
Holly Larson