December 12, 2022 at 11:29 a.m.
Art show celebrates the work of Rhinelander nonagenarian
Art show celebrates the work of Rhinelander nonagenarian
By Jake Schexnaydre-
Milestone Senior Living Center, where Holl resides, hosted a special showing of her work on Dec. 2. Many of the paintings on display featured scenes of nature, both in big and small sizes.
Holl explained that she started experimenting with watercolors.
She had three dollars, two of which she "borrowed" from her father, and she used the money to buy water and paint.
From there, this passion grew as she moved on to experiment with different mediums.
Holl's visual style in her paintings is distinct - muted and soft colors. Some of her subjects include lakes and forests, but she prefers not to paint people. She would also regularly paint clouds, to the point where she would be given the moniker "The Cloud Lady".
As her creativity evolved, she experimented with oil paintings and pastels as well as etching and monoprints.
She grew up in Wauwatosa and earned a bachelor's degree in art from Lawrence University in Appleton. After college, she lived in Madison for 55 years before relocating to Rhinelander in 2021.
During World War II, she and her husband moved into a house with a Quonset hut where she could do her paintings. Some of the subjects she painted included animals that belonged to her next-door neighbors.
"I would sit in there and I would watch them and paint (them)." Holl explained.
Around that time, she would also be visited by a person from the University of Wisconsin, who would scout for paintings from artists all over the state for an art show in Madison. Holl was one of those people that the scout selected, and she submitted two of her paintings to the art show. This would be the first time she would sell her art to anyone.
In the years since, she would always buy a booth at the Madison art show when it was happening, especially when she would become a member and even president of the Madison Art Guild.
For the next several decades, she would gradually make her mark in the art world. Her paintings would appear in such exhibits as the Wisconsin Women in the Arts Juried Show, the 17th Midwest Winter Exhibit in Wausau's Center for Visual Arts in 2007, and the UW-Stevens Point Competitive Juried Exhibition, among many others.
Her work has been displayed in various major collections at various art museums and hospitals in Wisconsin, from Madison to West Bend. She even has had her work featured in one collection in Oslo, Norway.
Holl has also received her fair share of accolades over the years. Her most recent awards were for two consecutive wins for the Judge's Choice Award in the 2015 and 2016 Madison Art Guild Juried Shows. In addition, she won the Judge's Choice First Place Award in 2014.
While she has sold a decent amount of her paintings to art museums and art shows, she said she has always preferred giving them away.
In one anecdote, she recalled giving away a painting to a local church after a revelatory yet humorous experience with her family.
"My daughter's husband said, 'Jesus!'," Holl explained. "He just yelled right out, 'Jesus!', and I didn't know what he was talking about. My daughter turned around, and all of the sudden she saw what he saw. ...He said, 'Go look at the cloud!' Sure enough, there was Jesus' face in it, and I said, 'I didn't do that! I had no idea!'"
When she showed the painting to her church, they were amazed by it. They asked Holl if they could keep it, and she happily agreed.
"I gave a lot away, but I had fun doing it," she said.
Around the time she lived in Madison, she would also give away some of her paintings to a local vendor. In one instance, they were able to sell one of her paintings rather quickly. "Ever since then, I have always given them paintings to sell, and they've been a wonderful friend," she said.
Even though she has created plenty of paintings over the years, this didn't come without setbacks. As she became an octogenarian, she began to develop a case of macular degeneration that still affects her to this day. While she can still paint with this condition, she uses light from the sun to be able to properly paint.
"I can't do it in the afternoon because I'm not getting any sun coming in," she explained, "but I am in the morning. That's when I can see."
At 97, she still paints as often as she can and keeps busy with other activities including exercising. She has managed to create a great legacy with her work, and it seems like she will continue to do so, one brush stroke at a time.
Jake Schexnaydre may be reached at [email protected].
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