Christopher Holt, Principal Artist

Christopher Holt was born in Asheville, NC in 1977. Raised in the mountains of Haywood County, his exposure to the natural beauty of WNC informs his artistry.  Chris grew up drawing and painting, eventually finding his way to the art department at UNC-Chapel Hill. There, his attention was captured by the Native American Artist Kimowan Metchewais and he learned much about the creative process as well as storytelling through art.  After Chapel Hill, his travel lust took him to Central and South America, where he was exposed to ancient sites including Copan in Honduras and Chichenitza in Mexico. He also discovered the fresco paintings of Diego Rivera.

Upon returning to Asheville in 2003, Christopher’s path crossed with the legendary artist Benjamin Franklin Long IV, who was founding a school in the mountains dedicated to the study of drawing and painting. Christopher quickly became a devoted student at the Fine Arts League of the Carolinas. Over time he became an integral part of the school as well as Long’s fresco work. After a decade of working with Long, Holt established his own studio in Asheville,

Chris has continued traveling, painting and finding inspiration abroad, always returning to NC to show his work and teach, often working with students in the Asheville City Schools. His recent travels have taken him to Cairo, Egypt and the Dominican Republic where he facilitated the painting of two large murals in a small village where children of Haitian decent worked alongside Dominican children to complete pictures of peace and community in a country caught up in racial injustice. 

Last year, he visited Jamaica, Cuba, and returned for another trip to the Dominican Republic to work with the children of Saman. He is currently working on a project for the Order of Saint John with fellow Charleston artist, Jill Hooper, to paint a fresco in Jerusalem. He is also creating gallery pictures for Horton & Hayes Fine Art in Charleston, SC, and has begun the drawing for what will become a fresco for Haywood Street Congregation in Asheville, NC.

Jill Hooper

Jill Hooper is from North Carolina and New York. She worked under D. Jeffrey Mims for an extended period in North Carolina as well as in Florence, Italy, studying still life, portraiture, and the figure. She also studied at Universite de Haute Bretagne in Rennes, France where she learned printmaking. Hooper studied portraiture with a focus on the sight-size traditions with Charles Cecil in Florence. In 2006, she participated in the apprentice program under Benjamin Long IV at the Fine Arts League of the Carolinas, and assisted Long with the Crossnore fresco in mountains of North Carolina.