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Arts & Entertainment

Artist Profile: Connie Millholland

Benicia artist blurs the lines between figurative and abstract.

Connie Millholland grew up in Campbell, California and graduated from San Francisco State University with a masters degree in education. She later started taking various courses in art and studied with studio artists privately. She credits Michael Markowitz and Biganness Livingstone as her most influential teachers.

Millholland moved to Vallejo in 1975 to teach art and home economics in the Vallejo school district. She taught there for over thirty years. Millholland moved to Benicia in 1988 and just retired from teaching in 2009. She later taught classes for adults.

She's been making art her whole life and began exhibiting her work in 1993 when came to fruition. Millholland has been a member of the organization since it's beginning. Her first show was Artists Response to War, exhibited at City Hall. The show was in response to the first gulf war.

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Millholland's preferred mediums are charcoal drawings and oil paints. “I like charcoal because of the fluidity and flexibility it offers the artist,” says Millholland.

Although her subjects are mainly female nudes, her abstract style offers just a hint of a figure. “I like hard and soft edges and how finding out how much you can diffuse without losing the image.”

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“I've always rested into developing the figure,” says Millholland. She admits that drawing figures is very challenging because of the variety of possible representations. “I've gone from realistic to abstracting the figure, presenting it in what ever interesting ways it comes to me “

She works in her arsenal studio three to four days a week and is currently taking an abstract painting class. “I feel it's important to plug into a class and learn new techniques,” says Millholland.

A vital member of the Benicia community, Millholland participates in local exhibitions and shows her work all over the Bay Area. Currently her work is being exhibited at , an Arts Benicia satellite gallery, and at the Arts Benicia .

Although Millholland is retired, she still works part time in the Benicia schools supporting new teachers. Aside from creating art, she looks for opportunities to go dancing to live blues music.

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