Good Things In Small Packages

They say good things come in small packages. The saying is true both of Taranaki artist Anne Holliday’s painting Jess and its subject matter. Amongst the thickly applied paint, the expressive brushstrokes and page fragments from a South African phone book, Holliday’s beloved dachshund Jess can be made out. The tilt of the dog’s head and her closed eye evokes a sense of utter relaxation; her paws, indicated with careful white claw lines, are turned up in sleepy bliss. The painting is so evocative of peaceful repose that it almost makes you want to take a nap yourself. 

Jess is an example of Holliday’s extraordinary layering of imagery. Many of her paintings start out as other things and are worked up, worked over and worked out over years. In 2008, Jess was a painting of an insect.  Now, the painting declares the importance of the dog to her life. Holliday’s work has been likened to some of the world’s best expressionist artists, including Willem de Kooning and Jean-Michel Basquiat. The artists share an urgency of brushwork, emotionally provocative subject matter and the use of highly charged colours. The strength of Holliday’s work has been acknowledged with several awards, most recently with the top prize for painting at the 2012 Taranaki Art Awards in Opunake.