Holly Frean is an award-winning artist whose work incorporates a range of mediums, from oil paintings on canvas to printmaking. Her imagination and versatility have led to coveted textile, ceramic and wallpaper collaborations with Burberry, Paul Smith and US clothing and retail brand Anthropologie.
Having begun her formal training as an architect and draughtsman, painting portraits took over and Holly graduated in Fine Art/Painting at City & Guilds of London Art School in 2002. Her practice has since grown to include picture-making in all its forms, typically oil paintings on canvas and gouaches on paper, also printmaking and 3D work. Infused with wit and humour, Holly paints on unusual surfaces from cardboard squares, paper plates and wooden palettes.
Holly Frean has exhibited extensively in the UK, America and Europe and collaborated on projects reaching far and wide. From decorating a Fabergé egg which helped raise over £1m for Action For Children, to launching a range of ceramics and tableware sold worldwide at Anthropologie with a sell-out solo exhibition of her paintings at their Kings Road store in Chelsea, London. Holly has since partnered with the British interior design house, Andrew Martin, on a stunning collection of wallpapers and fabrics based on the imagery in her paintings and launched a set of her own fine bone china side plates entitled 'Holly's Ark', in partnership with Heraldic Pottery, Stoke on Trent.
In 2016 by invitation from The New Craftsmen, Holly set up a temporary painting studio inside Burberry’s HQ during London Fashion Week in 2016 as their ‘in-house’ portrait artist. Working in a specially made gabardine tent for a week, Holly painted ‘ancestral portrait studies’ of Burberry’s visitors, who dressed in swathes of fabric and extravagant paper ruffs, posing on a high stool for the artist.
In her own unique and technically accomplished style, Holly Frean has work in many private, public and corporate collections. She has been commissioned by the Duchess of Northumberland, designer Betty Jackson CBE, Paul Smith CBE, Kit Kemp MBE, comedians Russell Howard, Ricky Gervais and Lee Evans, actor Russell Tovey, clothing retailer Johnnie Boden and Lord Mervyn of Abersoch.
Holly Frean has been the recipient of numerous accolades including the 2012 National Open Art Competition Painting Prize awarded by Grayson Perry (2012). She has had work selected for ING Discerning Eye and regularly shows at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. Her most recent solo show ‘HEADS’ was held at Green & Stone in November 2023. Having first exhibited with GrandyArt in 2006 we are delighted to be showing her work again in our current portfolio of established British artists.