Today I’m delighted to welcome Nova Scotia artists Alan Bateman and Holly Carr
Holly Carr is nationally renowned for her colourful and whimsical silk painting and public installations. She not only exhibits her work throughout Canada and designed for theatre, more recently
Holly has branched out into performance art, painting in real time with musicians and performers. This includes performances with world-renowned violinist Min Lee in Singapore, The National Art Center Orchestra in Ottawa, the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra as well as her own production with Symphony Nova Scotia. She gives her time and art generously for fundraisers.
Her life partner is Alan Bateman who is establishing himself as one of Canada’s finest realists.
Allan comes from a rich art background. His father is an internationally known wildlife artist Robert Bateman and his mother, Suzanne Lewis is a superb watercolourist.
Alan is a two-time recipient of The Elizabeth Greenshields Award. He has exhibited extensively throughout Canada, including shows in Toronto, Halifax, Hamilton, Edmonton and Victoria and several locations throughout the USA. Recently he finished a commissioned portrait of the outgoing president of the University of King’s College, Dr. George Cooper.
Both Holly and Allan received formal training at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in the mid-1980’s. I sat down with them in the dining room of their farmhouse just outside Canning Nova Scotia where they live, paint and manage their own gallery. Our conversation covered a broad range of topics from being artists as a business, to the controversial idea of un-schooling children and the role of art in education…