Meredith Holbrook

Meredith Owen Holbrook is a native of Tunica, Mississippi, and has lived for 40 years in St. Louis, Missouri. Meredith joined Portraits, Inc. in 2024 and finds the opportunity to shepherd others through the fascinating multi-step process of portraiture a seamless extension of the dedication to art and artistic expression she has known practically all her life.

Meredith attended St. Catherine’s School in Richmond, Virginia. She graduated from Hollins College in Hollins, Virginia, where she received a B.A. in Art History and Studio Art. After college she worked at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art. Upon moving to St. Louis, the St. Louis Art Museum became a place to volunteer and to learn. Originating as a volunteer at the information desk and being energized by the museum’s encyclopedic collection led to opportunities to become President of the Friend’s Board, President of the Board of Trustees, and Chair of the Development Committee. She has served on the Diversity and Collections committees, the Search Committee for the new director of the museum, the Leadership Society, as well as chaired Art in Bloom and the biennial holiday gala. Meredith considers the museum the same source of learning, engagement and reward as her husband Jim finds in the sport of golf!

Gardening is another passion in Meredith’s life, and she maintains a vegetable and flower garden at home and a large native Missouri prairie wildflower garden. She is a very active member of the Garden Club of St. Louis and has served as chair of the Program, Flower, Visiting Gardens and Membership committees. She co-chaired the Zone IX annual meeting in 2019. She is also a member of the Sea Island Gardening Group and currently serves as Program Chair.

The art of portraiture goes back in Meredith’s family in ways of being both the artist and the subject. “I still remember at age four, sitting on a wooden stool in front of the canvas in my Great Uncle and portrait artist Goode Davis’s Nashville studio… my crisp blue cotton and lace collared dress and the exact position he required I keep my hands in as they rested on my knee. Thirty-five years later, I posed again with my four-year-old daughter Lizzy in my lap in my childhood home in Mississippi for Tom Donahue, a beloved (now deceased) Portraits, Inc. artist.”

Meredith and her husband Jim also own a home in Sea Island, Georgia, and find it the perfect location for their family of children and grandchildren to enjoy nature, sports and much treasured relaxed togetherness.