Holly Irwin is an artist who grew up in Pittsburg and attended the Carnegie Institute from age 12 until college, learning to draw and study art from the classical perspective. Then, she attended Carnegie Mellon where she studied art. Holly was inspired by her mother who was an illustrator and portrait painter. There were always easels around the house with artwork in various stages. Irwin’s paintings are magnificent by any standard and widely revered by collectors, galleries, and design publications. She focuses on the simple life and this shows in her work. She frequently paints women and children, often with baskets, barns, houses, and nests in the background or in the hand. Holly usually works in oil and frequently uses a palette knife, which gives so much richness to the paintings. Holly says: “I apply layers of modeling paste, gel mediums, oil paint and acrylics with brushes, knives, and rags to achieve depth and complexity. The finished effect of my mixed media paintings is an aged quality, like a fresco.”
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