Edith Holmes

Edith Lilla Holmes (1893–1973), painter, was born in Hamilton, Tasmania, and lived most of her life in Moonah. From 1918 she studied art at the Hobart Technical College under Lucien Dechaineux and Mildred Lovett, then in 1930–31 at the Julian Ashton Art School, Sydney. She exhibited regularly with the Art Society of Tasmania and at Melbourne galleries, and was a founding member of the Tasmanian Group of Painters. Travelling on her first trip overseas to England and France in 1958, she held an exhibition at Tasmania House, London. Her principal subjects were landscapes, portraits and favoured objects painted in vivid colour. Landscapes painted out of doors in all weather and seasons, particularly on a family property at Carlton, reveal her love of light and atmosphere. She is represented in many Australian galleries. (See also Technical Education.)

Further reading: ADB 14; H Kolenberg, Edith Holmes and Dorothy Stoner, Hobart, 1983.

Sue Backhouse