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Painting (MA)

Laura Holmes

A close up image of a painting, consisting of translucent red, purple, and orange marks. Dark blue circle to the left.

Laura Holmes (b.2000, Norwich) is a British painter, based in London. She left De Montfort University (Leicester) in 2021 with a BA (Hons) in Fine Art, and is now graduating from the Painting programme at The Royal College of Art. She recently had her first solo show (Colour Of A Bruise, 2022) in London, and has shown work in multiple group shows in London and Leicester.

Holmes uses her practice to unearth methods of investigating her relationship with painting itself. Her work is the unfurling of experiences, observations, objects, and memories, which she pushes into a space beyond the canvas. It's an addiction, kept in control by a list of rules, thoughts, and rituals on painting.



Degree Details

School of Arts & HumanitiesPainting (MA)RCA2023 at Truman Brewery

Truman Brewery, F Block, Ground, first and second floors

Laura Holmes stands in her studio, in front of a work in progress. She has pink hair, and wears a black t-shirt and denim skirt.

I paint.

I excavate problems of painting.

My painting has a tide and a flow. It washes things away. I use washes of colour.

Painting is an anthropology.

My paintings are material articulations of the ontology that surrounds the problems and questions of painting.

There is a beautiful moment of balance in painting just as control transitions to intuition.

I continually push painting off a metaphorical cliff to find the moment of its collapse.

Painting is an arena.

I sabotage painting in this arena.

I want there to be a flow between the internal (intangible) and external (tangible) spaces of painting; my painting possesses space which is both internal and external to the canvas.

Reach into my paintings.

I divide space in painting.

I take and replace things. Things gather, I gather things, things sediment in space.

I like reanimating things: objects, memories, colours.

Painting is a test of resilience.

Painting is mine. I can do what I like with painting.

Painting is a process of learning and understanding more than it is making.

Painting is like cooking. Painters are like chefs.

I play with my food.

Painting is selfish. Painting is absurd.

When the end result isn’t important, I return to a child-like exploration of making.

I need failure.

I can do everything when I’m not allowed to do anything.

Painting is, and should be, fun(ny).

Translucent blue painting. Green and brown marks sit between layers. Orange vertical line to the right, smaller one diagonally.
The Initial Moment Of Onion Ring – Oil and oilstick on canvas. 200 x 125 cm, 2023
Translucent red painting. Interlocking circles. Purple, yellow and pink marks.
The Skip Button: Solution One Coma – Oil and oilstick on canvas. 200 x 150cm, 2023
Large green painting with white line dividing upper 3rd. Red pillar, 3 clay sculptures of hands and found objects on the floor.
She Didn't Really Wet Herself, It Was Just The Watermelon Juice – Oil and oilstick on canvas, clay, mesh wire, found objects. 250 x 300 cm, sculpture dimensions variable, 2023
iridescent green/blue translucent painting, with a neon green vertical line and orange circle. green pillar sits to left.
The Best Kind of Brick Walls Are The Ones That Question You – Oil and oilstick on canvas, cardboard tube, tissue paper. 178 x 120 cm, 2023
red painting with translucent purple and orange marks. Two dark blue circles, and white lines. Orange pillar sculpture in front.
What Is The Smallest Cylindrical Thing On Earth That's Bigger Than A Shrimp? – Oil and oilstick on canvas, cardboard tube, plaster. 180 x 120 cm, 2023
red painting with yellow lemon shape in the top half, outlined in white. purple vertical line, orange marks from left and right
Prime Age For Pain – Oil, oilstick, and charcoal on canvas. 150 x 100cm, 2023.
White painting with transparent blue horizontal marks on lower half. Yellow and red lines intersect three vertical blue lines.
If We Fill A Fish With Watering Can – Oil and oilstick on canvas. 150 x 100 cm, 2023
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Royal College of Art

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