Born in Columbus, Ohio, Holly Hope Banks earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Toledo in 1981. She was a registered copyist at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., where she worked for five years. Holly also had the opportunity to study painting and pastel under the artist Daniel Greene in New York before continuing her classical studies at the Atelier of Plein-Air Studies for four years. Her artistic journey was further enriched by extensive travels across Europe.

Holly’s work has been featured in numerous prestigious national juried exhibitions, including appearances at the National Arts Club and the Salmagundi Club in New York. She has won many major awards and has been included in museum exhibitions at the Butler Institute of American Art in 2000, 2001, 2010, 2011, 2016, and 2017. In 2011, the Butler Museum purchased her pastel Artist’s Mother for their permanent collection. Holly was also a featured artist at the AKC Museum of the Dog exhibition in NYC in 2022, with another upcoming exhibition in 2025.

In 1996, Holly participated in a cultural exchange with the Union of Russian Artists, becoming part of the first official group of American artists invited to Russia. Her work was exhibited in a joint American/Russian show in Kolomna and Moscow. In 1998, American Artist magazine named her one of the top ten emerging artists, and she later contributed the article An Artistic Imagination to the magazine in its October 2001 issue. Her portrait Ms. Ramona Tumblin was included in Best of Portrait Painting (North Light Books, 1998). Additionally, Holly’s award-winning piece Michael was featured in Plein Air Magazine in February 2015. She is also an author and a regular contributor to the Gammell Lack Institute of American Art video library.

Holly is listed in various notable reference books, including Who’s Who in American Art, Who’s Who of American Women, and Who’s Who in the World. Specializing in realist academic art, Holly works across multiple genres, including equestrian and animal subjects, portraiture, figurative works, still life, and landscapes. Her paintings are part of private collections both in the U.S. and internationally, and her boardroom portraits can be found in various institutions.

She lives with her artist husband and works out of her studio in Florida.