Color therapy

It’s in her bloodline. From her grandfather, a cartoonist at a major Chicago newspaper, through her architect and artist parents, she comes by it naturally. Holl recalls a journey at age 12 to Europe, coming face-to-face with major artists in museums, and having the master impressionists leave their mark on her longings.

Her art journey continued through high school into college, where she double-majored in Art and Environmental Science. You’ll see those dual influences in her plein air oil paintings at the gallery, but this show is not about that; it’s about printmaking instead.

She started pursuing glassmaking as a primary medium and even worked in Seattle at the Pilchuck, famous for Dale Chihuly’s works. The climate drove her south to the Bay Area, where the realities of making a living brought her to a career as a special education teacher.

Glass wasn’t working out for where her creativity was leading. It’s hard, technical and not a kitchen table pursuit. “It breaks, oh well,” she jokes.

Painting filled the space it left.

Sundays she could break free to paint outside and keep her hand in art. Once retired, she had freedom to explore more widely.

Fascinated with shapes, she took a break from realism and found her way into abstraction. “It moves me, the energy, the expressiveness,” she said.

Now her expression has moved into print-making, monoprinting to be precise. Yet even here you will see remnants of her history with natural forms. Of late she is most interested in exploring the shapes of magnolias and eucalyptus that appear in her show.

Holl’s approach to monoprinting is not the standard, where you would lay out an entire painting on a plate, press paper onto it, and pull off a one-of-a-kind print. Holl goes for a layered approach, literally.

She enjoys color and doesn’t want to get stuck on a few combinations. So she randomly pulls three or four from a bag and works with whatever she grabs.

Inking a gelli plate (gelatin and silicone) with a background color, she pulls the paper off, then inks another layer, often with a stencil she has cut from her sketches. Then layers another color with a stencil, another layer perhaps with the leftover edge of the ink, and so on, until she has the sense of depth she desires.

And there is depth in the resulting composition.

Classically, a painting has a foreground, middle and background to tease the brain into perceiving depth. In this case she has layers of color and form that are often translucent or transparent. You perceive depth of space, yet you also get a sense of time as your eye moves through.

“Rising Sun” has five layers on a yellow-orange background with the sun. Four transparent leaf and flower washes overlap in blue, green and purple, leading the eye through the scene.

In “The Space Between” four layers overlap transparently in blue and green, over a background graded green to pink, with white spots and a pentimento.

They’re too varied for me to cover all. Go see for yourself.

She doesn’t fuss over results. For Holl it’s about the Zen of process. “I can get lost in this for hours.”

Take a deep breath, take a leisurely look close up at her monoprints, smile and feel the peace wash over you.

Artist reception June 13, 1-4 p.m.

Portola Art Gallery at Allied Arts Guild, 75 Arbor Road, Menlo Park, portolaartgallery.com, (650) 321-0220.

You Can Create Too: Try your hand at printing at the Atherton Art Foundation on June 13, 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. RSVP by email: plarenas.onpaper@gmail.com

Bart Charlow, author, artist and consultant blends over 45 years of painting and photography with narrative storytelling. Explore the intersection of observation and expression through his insights on the local art scene, find his books at bartcharlow.com and his art at bartsart.weebly.com.