New England-based painter Holly Grosvenor captures the mesmerizing luminosity of her environment. Grosvenor’s paintings are based on years of observing the natural landscape with plein air watercolor sketching and photography. Acting on her self-proclaimed obsession with luminosity, she studies the iridescent quality of light, the way it fragments into rays of different colors, filters through water and air, and reveals both transparency and opacity.

The importance of sunlight, as it reflects off the surface of an object and the way it changes throughout the day, seasons, or weather conditions is a source of endless fascination for the artist. With meticulous precision, Grosvenor eternalizes fleeting miracles of the everyday. “Passing moments of uncelebrated beauty,” she calls them, seemingly sterile objects rendered beautiful by light. By opening our eyes to the wonders that surround us, Grosvenor fosters a deep appreciation for the here and now. She cites Impressionism, Fauvism, Abstract Expressionism, and American Transcendentalism as her inspirations.

Grosvenor has a B.A. in Environmental Design from Brown University and an M.A. in Architecture from Harvard University Graduate School of Design. She won Best in Show in the 2021 Water Media Spring Juried Show from the Oregon Society of Artists. Her exhibitions include the Providence Art Club (Providence, RI), the Oregon Society of Artists (Portland, OR), the Portland Rose Festival (Portland, OR), and the Spring Bull Gallery (Newport, RI). She has been a practicing architect for forty years. Now retired from the profession, she lives and paints in western Massachusetts.