UA

Gold Coast based Artist Holly Hughes is an award winning airbrush artist who has been making a statement in the industry since 2011. From body painting to custom automotive art, everything is a canvas and fine detail is her speciality. Her skills have expanded exponentially since then with the experimentation of mixed mediums and techniques that have been on display at galleries and competitions across Queensland. She currently holds two titles at the Australian Body Art Festival and other awards under her belt from visual art competitions.

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Her inspiration is driven from the ocean and everything it entails; the big the small, the obscure and the colour. She believes it is a beauty unmatched by anything else and hopes to bring that into her own work. 

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Awards

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Mary Valley Arts Festival - 1 st place human form category                                               
Australian Body Art Festival - 1 st place spfx; airbrush category                                       
Australian Body Art Festival- 1st place spfx; 3 rd place airbrush category                           
ABAA (Australian Body Art Awards) 1st Place                                                               
Mary Valley Arts Festival- 1st place Human Form & Peoples Choice                           
QBAA (Queensland Body Art Awards)- 2nd Place                                                         
Sparmax International Airbrush Competition- 3rd in Automotive category                            
QBAA (Queensland Body Art Awards)- 1st place overall winner                                     
Mary Valley Art festival- 1st place in Open and Animalia category                                   
Mary Valley Art Festival- 1st place in Still Life, 2nd place in Animalia                                 

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Holly was awarded a RADF grant via Arts Queensland in 2017 to showcase a solo exhibition in which she directed and constructed herself, read the full article here:

  http://www.arts.qld.gov.au/case-studies/holly-hughes-diving-into-new-mediums

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On the exhibition;

“I challenged myself by creating something from the ground up and was able to share it with the community. I constructed the tent from scratch and blocked out all light so the audience walked into a pitch-black room and discovered ultraviolet paints lighting up before their eyes in the form of species that inhabit the Great Barrier Reef.

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The concept was experimental – I had experience with body art and wanted to do something on a different canvas.

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I do a bit of scuba diving and free diving, which gave me the inspiration for it. Diving has educated me and I wanted to open people’s eyes to the incredible colours fish have.

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– Holly Hughes

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