insideKENT Magazine Issue 82 - January 2019 | Page 35

ARTS+ENTERTAINMENT
KENT ARTIST PROFILE:
CAS HOLMES
ARTIST CAS HOLMES HAS BEEN INTERESTED IN ART HER ENTIRE LIFE AND HAS TURNED
THAT INTEREST AND PASSION INTO A CAREER THAT SHE LOVES AND THAT BRING
HAPPINESS TO MANY. insideKENT SPOKE TO CAS ABOUT HER PARTICULAR KIND OF
ARTISTIC TALENT AND HOW 2019 IS SHAPING UP FOR HER.
If you had to define your art, how would you
describe what you do? Why found materials? What do they bring to
art that nothing else can?
I trained in fine art and combine mixed media with
found materials and stitch in works best described
as ‘painting with cloth’. I really enjoy the history and familiarity of discarded
cloth, paper and found materials. The complex,
often damaged surfaces carry their own stories which
both inform and relate to the shapes and textures I
see in the landscape and the world around me. The
rituals of drawing and painting, making marks (and
repairing) with stitch mark the passing of time.
How did you become an artist?
I was constantly drawing on my dad’s wallpaper
offcuts as a child. After obtaining my degree in Fine
Art Painting at Maidstone College of Art (now UCA),
I studied extensively in Japan with fellowships
awarded by the Winston Churchill Trust and Japan
Foundation. These gave me the grounding and I
have not looked back.
What is the most unusual, daring, or
interesting commission you’ve ever received,
or piece of work you’ve ever produced?
I love the challenge of producing work for both
public spaces as well as more intimate reflective
pieces for individual commission. ‘Garden of
Remembrance’ was a piece commissioned for the
Garden Museum in London and carried images
relating to both Kent and Norfolk. ‘Tea Flora Tales’
is perhaps one I am most proud of…and it is not
even my work. It is the result of many, many
thousands of ‘woman hours’ over the last six years
in which small size pieces celebrating flora and habitat
have been added daisy-chain like to an ongoing
installation which has been seen at major art and
textile events all over the world. In the last year, with
support for the Embroiderers Guild UK, it was
exhibited at the Knitting and Stitching Shows 2018
and in doing so raised awareness of our need to
conserve our wildflowers and habitat and the work
of the Kent charity, Plantlife.
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