( Spring Flower )
Edith Lilla Holmes
Details
- Artist
- Edith Lilla Holmes
- Title
- ( Spring Flower )
- Medium
- oil on artist board
- Size
- 34 x 41 cm
- Details
signed lower right: Edith Holmes
Copyright the Estate of the Artist
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Provenance
private collection, Melbourne
Further Information
Edith Lilla Holmes moved around Tasmania as a child, settling near Hobart where she lived for the rest of her life. She studied at the Hobart Technical College and for a time at the Julian Ashton School in Sydney where she met Thea Proctor and George Lambert.
She shared a studio with several other artists in Hobart, travelling regularly to Melbourne for exhibitions where her work was well received in the 1930s and 40s.
Holmes was a founding member of the Tasmanian Group of Painters and exhibited annually at the Art Society of Tasmania (1927 -1972). Holmes travelled to Europe in 1958; 1960 and 1971. Although she favoured landscapes, she also painted portraits, hanging in the Archibald on ten occasions between 1935 – 1954.
Still life as an artistic tradition has a long history. As a genre, it allows the artist to explore the aesthetics and mechanics of painting such as composition, colour, texture without any narrative constraints. Here, Holmes presents an abundance of spring flowers, reaching right across the canvas from the vase placed off centre, with a juxtaposition of complimentary colours yellow against purple; and of shapes from drooping snowdrops to coronet jonquils and spears of green.
Represented:
National Gallery of Australia; National Gallery of Victoria; Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery
View other artworks by Edith Lilla Holmes
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