Tilia Holmes

Tilia Holmes is a Dorset based artist specialising in pyrography and oil painting on wood. She aims to celebrate trees and nature, highlighting their importance through her artwork by capturing the abstraction of leaves, branches and dappled light whilst retaining her realism style.

Achieving a BA Hons in Graphic Design and Illustration at Arts University Bournemouth, Tilia developed a love for design and composition, focusing on illustration. Alongside her studies, she continued to develop her tree pieces. Moving to London in pursuit of a successful career in film poster design, Tilia continued to exhibit her pyrography artwork across the country at exhibitions and galleries, with a solo exhibition at Treehouse Hotel, London, reaching the final of Wildlife Artist of the Year 2023 and most recently becoming an associate member of internationally acclaimed art collective, The Arborealists, who focus on trees as a subject.

Now living in Dorset, Tilia takes inspiration from the trees in the wood surrounding her home. Her process commences with wood burning illustration technique called pyrography – this ancient art from is used to create tones and marks with different levels of heat, she then brings her pieces to life with oil painting. Tilia continues to explore new methods to achieve mark making on wood; using a blow torch for scorching, a dremel for engraving and gold leaf for highlights.