Brian Hollister has “spent many years traveling and hiking throughout the United States, primarily in the Southwest, as well as the British Isles, Italy and New Zealand. I stumbled upon the structure of these paintings in Italy when I came face to face with the banded marble cathedrals in Siena and Florence. There was an instant recognition of a connection between this banding and the strata of the landscapes so evocative in the Southwest. These travels and perspectives inform and guide my work. This work represents a culmination of years of deep study and an ongoing immersion in nature. Their intent is to represent in a cultural idiom the intensity of experiences I have had in wilderness.

The expressive power of color and light are central to each painting. The paintings offer a slowing down to experience what makes us alive at the juncture of nature and culture. These paintings are a means to convey a sense of place without specificity, an attempt to go beyond something that can be described yet not defined.”