Collection: Holly Lombardo

You could say Holly has been a painter her whole life, she just didn't know it since she always intended to be a scientist. Holly attended an engineering college and earned a Master of Science degree in Cell Biology, not art. And although she currently works full time in the Biotechnology industry for a startup instrumentation company, her desire to be creative with color has always existed.

Having spent most of her free time as a child outdoors in Maine, Holly tromped through the snow chasing rabbit tracks, examining the undergrowth on the forest floor, and noticing details on painted Trillium, birch trees, and fall foliage. Her observations then inform her work now. Today, she paints with a purposeful urgency and a desire to capture on canvas the colors and textures she noticed in nature as a child. Because she is self-taught, she has no emotional constraints and paints with a freedom of expression and a curiosity for the colors she mixes. 

As a scientist, Holly engineers her artwork by using her scientific and observational skills while applying math and proportions to the canvases-eagerly mixing colors much like she mixes solutions in the lab. The color palette and patterns of the outdoors inspire her work and she is excited about the vibrancy and effects that can be created by mixing colors and juxtaposing them on a canvas. Holly says she cannot separate the scientist and artist that she is, and she does not want to.