HOLLY FREAN

Holly Frean studied at Camberwell College of Art (Foundation Year) before obtaining a BA in Architecture from Oxford Brookes University and a BA in Painting from City & Guilds of London Art School.

In 2002 she was awarded a scholarship from the Guild of Fishmongers and the Pardoe Prize for watercolour.

Following her sell out degree show, Holly has completed a number of portrait commisions and has shown her work extensively both in the UK and America, and continues to show in London with the Rebecca Hossack Gallery.

We first showed her work in 2005, and are lucky to have a few pieces for our summer exhibition showing painters and printmakers.

These include her four canvas panels in one frame showing "Velasquez painting Las Meninas". In Velasquez's painting we, the viewers, are standing just to the right of the King and Queen, whose reflections we can see in the distant mirror, looking down an austere room in the Alcazar.

The Infanta Dona Margarita doesn't want to pose. She has been painted by Velasquez ever since she could stand. She is now five years old, and she has had enough. Holly's panels show how the Infanta is being persuaded by her ladies-in-waiting, known by the Portuguese name of meninas. They are doing their best to cajole her, and have brought her dwarfs, Maribarbola and Nicolasito, to amuse her.

We also show Holly Frean's large screen print on linen showing Old Masters and a series of small paintings of Matisse in his studio (some with his dog).