MONROE — Morgan Hollis does both painting and farming, majoring in Dairy Science when she went to college. She has such a deep love and passion for art since she’s been doing it for so long. Her love of animals and nature is seen through both her ventures with art and farming, showing a connection between her two passions. 

Hollis has been creating art for most of her life, thanks in part to her grandmother. She specializes in painting, mainly acrylic and watercolor, while also doing sketching.

“I do mostly painting styles, like acrylic and watercolor. I do some sketching and stuff like that too, with colored pencils or just regular pencils,” she said. “I’ve always been drawn to acrylic, but lately I’ve been getting a lot more into colored pencils.”

She has been doing art for around 25 years, ever since she was a kid. She got into art through her grandmother, who taught her everything she knows.

“My grandmother is an artist as well, so ever since I was little, she was always having me do little art projects and sparked the creative gene. I’ve always been painting alongside her,” she said.

Over the summer, she sold a favorite art piece of hers that depicted a country setting with a church. Something about the piece had always spoken to her.

“I actually just sold it, and I was really surprised that I sold it. It was this church that was out in the country. It had kind of a stormy sky and I was always really drawn to it. It was one of my favorites and I sold it this summer,” Hollis said.

Her main inspiration for her art is nature. She really likes to capture nature scenes in her pieces, focusing a lot on the rural types of settings that are prevalent in the area.

“I like more woodsy types of scenes in nature with those types of flowers and local landscapes. I don’t do much with snow, but a lot of woodsy types of landscapes are usually my go-to. Or animals in general. I’ve been doing a lot of pet portraits lately,” Hollis said.

She has carried her love of art with her through all areas of her life, even in college, despite not majoring in it.

“I’ve been doing it for a long time because my grandmother just kind of put that pencil in my hand and she’s like, ‘You’re going to be an artist.’ I was the only one who really stuck with it,” Hollis said. “I took a course in college just to kind of keep things going. I was going to go to school for it but she was like, ‘Don’t go to school for it, I’ll teach you techniques and whatever. If you just want to paint, I’ve got you.’”