Laurel Holmes

Laurel Holmes (b. 1964) lives in the Western Cape, South Africa. Her work aims to distil the essence of her immediate natural environs.   

Using the sublime as her subject matter, her practice references a nostalgia strongly influenced by memories of an unrestricted, free childhood, where the physical landscape was more accessible. Using printmaking, she examines fragility and strength in a natural world within which our own lives are often harried, bombarded by development, fear, and worry, and too little privacy.

Her works invite the viewer to broaden their own thinking about the natural world and its commodification, and where places of serenity, solace and serendipitous insight are increasingly hard to access.   

Holmes left a corporate career in 2012 to work as a full-time artist. In 2021 she completed a postgraduate diploma in fine art, with distinction, at the Michaelis School of Fine Art, UCT.  

She is active in the South African art landscape - exhibiting, founding Open Studios Kommetjie in 2018, and was an active member of The Printing Girls 2018-2026.

Her prints, paintings, and ceramics are held in private international and local collections as well as in South African corporate collections, Spier Arts Trust, and the University of Cape Town’s Works of Art Collection.