Watercolor artist & educator
SETH
HOLMES
Finding the extraordinary
in everyday places.
Waynesboro, Pennsylvania
Biography
THE ARTIST
Seth Holmes is a watercolor artist and educator based in Waynesboro, PA. One of his earliest memories is saying, “I want to be a professional artist when I grow up.” One of his next earliest memories is telling himself that was impossible.
In 2015, Seth moved to Los Angeles to pursue filmmaking. A year later, a friend introduced him to watercolor, and during a trip to Japan in 2018, something clicked. A quick sketch made him realize he actually enjoyed painting—and maybe wasn’t so bad at it. He was learning to give up control and lean into the chaos.
By 2020, Seth was thinking seriously about starting his own art business. The following year, he painted a local coffee shop and was floored by the result: How did I do that? He reverse-engineered the painting, and in the process began finding a style that has continued to shift, develop, and deepen.
Today, Seth paints, teaches watercolor, and runs his own shop in Waynesboro, PA.
Artist Statement
WHAT MATTERS
For much of my life, I’ve struggled with uncertainty.
The future has always felt like something I needed to solve before I could move forward, leading to overthinking, missed opportunities, and a lot of time spent anywhere but the present.
That began to change while sitting beside a creek one day, watching the water move past. I started to understand that being present meant slowing down and letting each moment be what it is. In many ways, that is what I’d been learning to do through painting—capturing one moment, one detail at a time, until those pieces become a whole.
Especially over the last year, this has become an increasingly deliberate part of my process. Before I paint, I like to ask: What is the story here? What do I want the viewer to notice? Where do I want their attention to go? I deliberately leave areas of the paper unpainted when they are peripheral to the story, or when the contrast helps draw the viewer in, allowing white space and selective detail to guide the eye.
My paintings aren’t meant to capture everything. They’re meant to capture what matters.
Seth also teaches watercolor and brings creative people together through workshops and community meetups .