About the Artist
Holly Kernes has painted in oils since 2008. She started painting outdoors, plein air, in 2010. She painted her 400th plein air painting in 2023.
She started using only palette knives in 2019, enjoying the experience of applying thick paint to make a beautiful work of art. Many people comment that the texture and color remind them of a stained glass window.
"She uses a lot of thick paint. But she also doesn't totally mix it before she applies it to the canvas. And what that does is takes a painting that looks interesting across the room, then when you get closer to it and you see all that marbleized paint, it just makes it that much more compelling.
So that's something I've heard called eye candy. You want a painting to look good from across the room but you also want it to keep people's interest when they walk up closer to it, and her work does that beautifully."
- Kathleen B Hudson, awards judge for Steamboat Art Museum Plein Air 2023
Art Education
Graphic Design at Colorado Institute of Art
Botanical Illustration at Denver Botanic Gardens
Studied oil painting with Don Sahli for two years
Kevin Weckbach's Master Painting class for 10 months at the Curtis Arts & Humanities Center
Art and painting workshops with many other great artists.
Holly's plein air setup, in Crested Butte, Colorado
