Incollect Magazine - Issue 10

Incollect Magazine 81 Iconica Fine Art Artist: Tim Holmstrom “I’m betting on Tim Holmstrom,” says the longtime Connecticut art advisor and dealer Isabella Garrucho. “He is a talented newcomer who has had an incredible life and that is fueling some even more incredible artwork.” Holmstrom is a photojournalist and adventure photographer who took up painting later in life, drawing on travels and the natural curiosity of a journalist to craft wistful, mystical oil on canvas and ink and oil on watercolor paper paintings that hover between pure abstraction and expressionist landscapes. Holmstrom’s subject matter is the passing of time, memory, loss, and the vast unpredictable forces of nature, all conveyed with a poignant and finely balanced sentimentalism. “When I first saw Holmstrom’s paintings at a friend’s house I felt like I had been struck by lightning,” Garrucho explains. “Holmstrom’s work doesn’t need explanation or embellishment — and that is what I love about it. His canvases and works on paper powerfully convey that art finds form and strength through simplicity and intention,” Garrucho says. Holmstrom’s black-and-white paintings remind Garrucho of Robert Motherwell’s Spanish Elegy series; the moodiness, the emotion, the way the artist uses the color black to symbolize the darkest parts of our lives, while the color white signifies hope — a belief that the best is yet to come. “Those qualities, combined with the strength of each painting, demonstrate he has all it takes to thrive in the art world.” Dust and Shadow, 2024. Mixed media, oil on canvas, charcoal dust, and photograph, 48 x 60 inches. Celestial Singularity 11, 2024. Oil, ink, and charcoal dust on Arches Aquarelle watercolor paper mounted on plywood, 44.5 x 44.5 inches.