Olivia Holden

Behind the Art

Olivia is a self-taught artist based in the UK. She works by hand with acrylic and gouache paint, creating artwork that is expressive, fluid and playful. Olivia also works as a children’s picture book illustrator and her main inspiration for her paintings comes from the characters and world she builds for those young at heart.  Her work embraces happy accidents, paint bleeds and unexpected colour choices. She believes there is a real magic in not knowing how a finished painting will end up, intuitively allowing a piece to reveal itself through experimentation.

Folk art also feeds heavily into her work and she is continuously inspired by the visual storytelling, history and stylistic elements of this type of imagery. She enjoys creating narratives within her work in a simple yet evocative way.