Mrs. Holly Lombardo is known as the whip-smart science teacher who creates puns for the tops of her worksheets and pushes students to write ultra-detailed post-labs. When she’s not correcting physics tests, though, Mrs. Lombardo can be found in her home art studio, painting.

Inspired by the coastlines and marshes of Maine, her place of origin, Mrs. Lombardo has now sold ten years’ worth of original acrylic landscapes. Her work is in more than ten galleries, both in and outside of New England. She is also a blogger and a one-time solo show-host this past Fall.

Describing the beginning of her painting career, Mrs. Lombardo said: “As soon as my college graduation was over, I bought brushes and paint and set regular bottles on the window sill… and I just started painting… When I looked back at my picture, I realized, ‘They look like bottles!’” Mrs. Lombardo has continued to use her talent. For eight years, she participated in open studios, which are events held in a town hall or other large space for artists to display and sell their work to the public. Since then, her work has moved to galleries, where paintings sell more frequently at higher prices.

Mrs. Lombardo usually features trees in her paintings, many of them in rainbow colors. She says landscapes with trees sell better than those of just the sea alone. “People like trees. I don’t know why.” She explained that depth in art makes a huge difference. She often puts the ocean behind the trees, and sometimes a strip of land behind the sea. “It’s the most interesting pictures that lead your eye… I think that’s why people like the ocean behind the trees. Paintings tell a 3D story on a 2D piece of canvas.” Mrs. Lombardo also connects her creative talent to her regular profession, saying, “Art is very mathematical because you have to figure out the proportions, and I think that’s why I like it.”

One of Mrs. Lombardo’s landscape pieces will be printed as the cover for the Summer 2017 edition of the L. L. Bean catalog. “It happened as a result of my solo show in Kennebunkport,” she said. L. L. Bean received a postcard of one of her paintings and decided to use it. Although no more solo shows are currently planned, the L. L. Bean cover feature means a huge step in promoting Mrs. Lombardo’s art.

When asked what her goals and dreams are for the future, she said, “I want people to look at one of my paintings and say, ‘That’s a Lombardo.’”