Holly Friesen

Holly Friesen was born in Saskatchewan, studied Visual Arts at John Abbott College in Montreal and painting at York University in Toronto. After many years of travel and study she settled in Mont-Tremblant, QC and opened ArtBeat Studio where she painted and taught for 15 years. Four summer seasons saw Holly as artistic director and curator of The Art Barn in Mont-Tremblant. In 2010 she was curator and project manager of Ateliers du Village, an artist run gallery in Mont-Tremblant village. For three years she worked as the Montreal curator for the daily online art auction ArtBomb which featured Canadian artists and their artwork. The artist’s current studio is based out of Montreal QC and her paintings are collected internationally as part of both corporate and private collections. Holly’s passion is painting vibrant landscapes from the inside out while collaborating with other artists to make art more visible in our everyday world. About her work with textiles, Holly says: “For over forty years, I have painted the landscape, working in watercolours, gouache, oils, and acrylics. During the quiet evenings of the pandemic, I began rug hooking at home—an intuitive return to my long-standing love of textiles. I’ve always been drawn to the history of textile work and its deep connection to women’s creativity, using everyday materials to bring beauty and meaning into the world. As our lives become increasingly digital and saturated with sleek, AI-generated imagery, I believe there’s a growing yearning for work that bears the mark of the human hand. What began as small evening projects soon grew in scale, and I found myself translating my painted landscapes into wool. The tactile nature of this medium, and the meditative rhythm of working by hand, quickly became a new passion. Discovering the tufting gun opened up another dimension—allowing me to "paint" with wool on a larger scale. I now combine traditional hand tools with power tools to build texture and detail, bringing a painterly quality to each piece. This work is a continuation of my exploration of landscape—through colour, texture, and a deepening connection to material and process.” About painting, Holly says: “My work revolves around earth-honoring images that reflect and instill connection to local bio-regions. These images internalize a reverence for the earth and shift the intent from harming the world to living in a mutually life-enhancing manner. I learn what I need to know by painting. The more I paint, the less separation there is between inner and outer worlds. For me, painting is like deep prayer awakening an inner wilderness that reflects the earth’s landscape; the image is in you, and you are in the image. Painting is my breath, beauty my compass, and the earth is my body.”