Top: On the Shoulders of Giants | 36” x 48” | Oil on canvas
On The Shoulders of Others | 11” x 14” | Oil on canvas
Norman Arts Council announces the exhibition and three-month residency of Oklahoma cloudscape artist David Holland from May through July 2019 at MAINSITE Contemporary Art, 122 E. Main, Norman.
Holland will set up his painting studio inside the gallery for viewers to observe his progress as he completes a five-foot by six-foot cloudscape painting from start to finish. Holland is known for his stunning high contrast oil portraits of active storm formations in the moments of their most visually breathtaking display.
His residency — The Skies Have It— will be celebrated with an opening reception from 6 to 10 p.m. on Friday, May 10 at MAINSITE with a midway reception from 6 to 10 p.m. on Friday, June 14 and closing reception from 6 to 10 p.m. on Friday, July 12, all happening in conjunction with the 2nd Friday Norman Art Walk that takes place in the Walker Arts District of Downtown Norman each month.
The subject matter is one that all Oklahomans are intimately familiar with. Holland’s captivating cloudscapes start with his capturing storms photographically then searching through thousands of images for ones that are — to his eye — dynamic and dramatic enough that they say — to him — “PAINT ME!”
“Storms are a staple of our lives here in Oklahoma,” Holland said, “I present them as majestic gifts of water that present themselves as stunningly beautiful objects in our skies.”
Erinn Gavaghan — executive director of Norman Arts Council — saw an opportunity to connect Holland’s visual study of clouds with the scientific community in Norman, whose “study of weather at the National Weather Center and OU’s School of Meteorology is unsurpassed,” Gavaghan said.
Holland will lead a pair of workshops on both cloudscape photography and painting in late June to share the knowledge he has gained from more than ten years of painting clouds, as a part of Norman Arts Council’s Undercover Artists series.
Holland with a work in progress for his exhibition and residency.
But learning and observation is a daily aspect of Holland’s exhibition and residency. He will have an active studio set up inside the front of the gallery where passersby can see him painting live throughout the span of the residency.
“I’m excited to share my methods and materials with people, so they can have the same joy in creating dramatic images I experience,” Holland said.
MAINSITE Contemporary Art is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. The gallery and exhibition receptions are free and open to the public to attend. Visit mainsitecontemporaryart.com for more information.
The Gravity of Souls | 40” x 30” | Oil on canvas