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Artist Spotlight: Alex Holt

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Once again, we have chosen another great artist from The One Million Masterpiece to spotlight!

This time it's Alex Holt, currently in his final year of Game Art Design at De Montfort University in Leicester, UK, Alex has a gallery full of amazing images such as “Out of Time” and “Whatever Knows Fear…,” which admittedly is two of my favourites, but I think we can agree all of his images are truly amazing!

In an interview we asked what his favourite image in his gallery was, Alex said, “I'm going to go with 'Happy Memories', which admittedly feels like a slight cop out. I have a sense of nostalgia about the photo it is based upon, which isn't really a good reason in itself, but in a lot of ways I think it has more potential - most of the other pictures are just me painting something I thought looked cool, whereas that one is just a bit more emotional and human.”

Browsing through his gallery, it leads us to wonder, “What inspires his work?” and “How does he go about creating a new piece?”

As for inspiration, he says, “It changes constantly, I can just be walking somewhere and I'll see something that gives me a great idea entirely unexpectedly. I must admit that wildlife is probably the biggest inspiration as far as art is concerned. I can be reading something or watching a documentary and just see something that I could never have come up with if I'd tried, it's a little humbling, but very definitely inspiring.”

So how does he go about creating a new piece? “It depends on the square, some are me having a clear idea (or in one case, a specific image to replicate) of what I want, in which case I block it out and then just being refining things from there, but I sometimes just have some a vague idea, so I just pick a colour and start drawing and see what happens from there.”

Alex decided to join after reading an article about The OMM in ImagineFX magazine. He said, "Once I'd taken a look at the site I really couldn't think of any reason not to join, it's doing art AND it's for a good cause, I didn't need any more convincing than that." In addition, we asked Alex if he has benefited in any way from joining the project, “I joined when I was pretty new to digital art, so it definitely was a massive help in just getting the basics of it all down, and understanding how colour works in a computer. There is also the fact that this site has given me my first ever-published work in the form of the calendars, which gave me a massive morale boost when I found out - particularly being on the cover of the 2008 calendar, I was speechless for a long time after I found out!”

When we asked Alex what he thought the most important goal of the project is his response was “Any goal can be important, the charity side of everything is the easy candidate of course, all the charities supported here are definitely deserving of all support and promotion that this site brings them. Just as much though, if this site serves as a way of people meeting who would not otherwise, or a way of people getting into art, who am I to say that that is less important? As for will it succeed, I think it already has, the question is only how much more will it do so.”

Alex also has what I think is a very important message for the members of the OMM and for those who may be thinking about joining. "People shouldn't think 'I can't do art' - everyone has the potential to be artistic if they want to: just experiment, practice and look for advice if you want it. The biggest thing for artists to learn is to really look at the thing you want to draw and don't make assumptions. When you are little you might think elephants are blue, then later you get shown they are grey. But if you *really* look they are the colours of the mud they've been rolling in, the light that shines on them, the shadow they cast and a dozen other things. Its just remembering to look and once you see that, everything else will just be so much easier."

Stacey Dirickson and Sarah Edwards

Mon 17th Nov, 2008
Yay! Another item up! Well done Alex! And thanks for giving me credit even if I didn't really do anything for this one, Stacey! :)

Tue 18th Nov, 2008
I'd just like to thank everyone involved for liking my work enough for me to get to this point. Also thanks both Stacey and Sarah for doing the interview - it prompted a very similar reaction to the one I described for being on the calender cover!

Tue 18th Nov, 2008
Well done, Alex! Happy Memories is my favourite of yours too, I love the sketchy yet photographic look. =)

Thu 2nd Dec, 2010
"On the floor I am more at ease. I feel nearer, more a part of the painting, since this way I can walk around it, work from the four sides and literally be in the painting." Priti's Landscape Paintings

Mon 20th Dec, 2010
wow well done Alex, good work keep it up. rejuv by caci

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