Bio

Jim Holland was born in 1955 in Schenectady NY. While in college he began painting with acrylics and received some valuable instruction in watercolors. In the late 70s Jim began visiting Cape Cod. As he began painting scenes he encountered there, other subjects and techniques that he had been working with began to give way. He started refining the elements that would become his style, marked by stripped-down realistic depiction and a sense of solitude often found in the work of Edward Hopper—an artist for whom Jim has had lifelong admiration. 

            Jim works employs photographs to develop his compostions and is dedicated to the core of realism they afford him. There will often be some quick underpainting, but then there may be hours mixing and establishing an overall color and tonal scheme. 

            The enduring themes in Holland’s paintings are the light and space near the ocean. An expansive and peaceful place with colors from brilliant to nearly monochromatic. A beached sailboat or light slanting on clapboards and through windows, these are simple forms that form his compositions with an endless fascination in how different light affects the mood.

            Jim’s work has been exhibited throughout the Northeast in various one-person and group shows, and is included in numerous private and institutional collections in the United States and Europe. He lives in Brewster MA.