Oil & Watercolour Paintings by Holly Cecil
After many years of working in pencil, pen and ink and watercolour, I began painting with oils in 1999. I admired the style, technique and subject matter in paintings by J.W. Waterhouse and J.S. Sargent. My artist father, Don Berger, has given me a tremendous amount of inspiration and direction. After watching me applying watercolour paints undiluted to try to capture the richness of medieval velvet fabrics, he encouraged me to finally make the jump to oils, and the first attempt was copying Waterhouse’s ‘Ophelia’ in March, 1999. Since that time I have painted replicas of Waterhouse’s ‘The Lady of Shalott,’ ‘My Favourite Poet’ by Alma-Tadema, and ‘Fumee d'Ambregris’ by John Singer Sargent. Personal compositions include stone circles and beech trees I admired while living in Wales and England between 1991 and 1998, a painting of two ancient yew trees grown into the chuch doorway of Stow on the Wold, and a forest of bluebells in Cornwall, among others. These have been inspired by my love of the British Isles and the beauty in nature and the land there (see Great Britain page).
Art History papers:
- Dutch Illuminations: The Courtyard Paintings of Pieter de Hooch (1629-1684)
- Maternity Portraiture by Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun: How Eighteenth-Century Art Mirrored Changing Paradigms in Child-rearing Practices
January 2007 Exhibition: Myths & Legends
About the Artist
Artist's Statement
Great Britain page
Interesting Links:
Floral
Paintings by Don BergerPaintings by Alan Lee (Tolkien art) and here.
Poem of The Lady of Shalott by Tennyson
Information on Divine Proportion, or the Golden Mean
