Brian Holmes

About Me.

I can still recall the first time that the horizon became a line that could be physically crossed, but like a rainbow, something I would never be able to reach out and touch.  I realized this during a two week road trip thru West Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California and Nevada with my family.  I was eight years old and discovering the vast expanse of the American Southwest and the big blue sky that was sharply bisected by that always untouchable horizon line.  I credit that family road trip and my parents for sparking my initial love for the natural landscape.  Today, I credit that road trip as the catalyst for the path that I would travel throughout my adult life.

The fascination that I developed for the ever changing world outside my window, would ultimately lead me to pursue a bachelor’s of Landscape Architecture degree from Texas Tech University. A profession that has permitted me to manipulate and reshape the land on a daily basis.   I was introduced to the art of Michael Heizer, Richard Serra, and Donald Judd and how art can influence design and its place out in the world thanks to one of my professors at Texas Tech. Using the land as a canvas to create the simplest form of manmade expression sparked my interest in art and awakened a desire to participate in creating art.

After years of experimenting with various mediums and styles I discovered my passion for painting landscapes. I find that my artwork is less about capturing the untouched and natural beauty of a place that a traditional landscape painter might explore. Instead, I identify more with the natural landscape that is forever changed, at least in my lifetime, by the built environment. My first series of paintings titled “The Clear Creek Project” reflects the juxtaposition of a persistent riparian ecosystem and the industrial hinterlands where the Clear Creek River meanders through Wheat Ridge, Arvada and Denver. The Clear Creek series represents an investigation of a different line.  A more tangible line between the real interactions of a city and the natural environmental systems that help define the urban limits.

Currently, I'm working on a concept that I refer to as "Panhandle". It is a series of large and small paintings documenting manipulation of the land though agriculture in the Texas panhandle. Beginning with that family trip as an 8-year old, I have learned a tremendous amount about who I am as an artist through my observations of the American Southwest.   I prefer to paint on large canvases, a nod to the vastness of the subject that I tirelessly try to capture. My use of large brushes allows me to cover the canvas quickly and may speak to my lack of patience with detail. This also helps give my paintings a travel sketchbook feel. I don't necessarily paint to the edges of the painting to give the painting a blurred effect like its speeding by.