Heidi Holloway was born and raised in the Maritime Provinces of Canada. She grew up with Nova Scotia’s rugged coastline as her playground and the wilds of nature as her playmate. These early experiences along with her reflective spirit and a quirky sense of humor have greatly influenced the themes and expressions in her art.
Heidi became an artist through inspiration and self-teaching. Her work focuses on the natural world, bringing to light nature’s tones of humanity. Heidi works primarily with acrylic, but also expresses using oil depending on mood and the needs of the piece she is creating. Heidi’s work is in private collections across Canada and internationally.
Fascinated with the interconnection between nature and humanity, Heidi has a unique way of forming a bond between these two subjects within her work. Heidi’s work often spans between putting a spotlight on the subtleties of human expression in nature and the formation of vivid overplay of human traits in wildlife. Being a person with an ever-moving creative mind, creative expression does not start and end on the canvas. Before images take shape in the physical, concepts, images, and words swirl in the intellectual. Dancing around until a point of connection is sparked between them. Heidi has an urge to unite opposing themes and to bond unrelated subjects.
Heidi is best recognized for her vibrant and detailed portrayal of birds. The themes within her bird depictions are born within Heidi’s life experiences and passions. An admirer of feathered creatures, Heidi has long-standing captivation for the beauty, uniqueness, and freedom represented by birds. This, in combination with holding a need to experience life with a dash of humor, has formed much of her inspiration.
Many of Heidi’s works visually parallel a figure of speech as they carry separate meaning from their traditional or literal definition. By pairing of visual and vocabulary in these works of art, Heidi intentionally deviates from ordinary language use to evoke a deliberate departure from common reality. Inciting a redirected focus on the humanistic characteristics found in wild creatures. Heidi’s works expands the vocabulary of what is familiar or better known to something that is less known in a playful and colorful manner.
