Anthony Holdsworth was born in England in 1945. He was introduced to oil painting in high school by the New England painter, Loring Coleman. Holdsworth embarked on a painting career while working as Head of Outdoor Restoration for the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy after the flood of 1966. He continued his studies at the Bournemouth College of Art in England where he studied with master draftsman Samuel Rabin and color theorist Jon Fish and at the San Francisco Art Institute where he studied with Julius Hatofsky, and Fred Martin.
He has shown with major galleries in Oakland, San Francisco, Sacramento and Los Angeles. He has participated in two exhibitions at the Oakland Museum. He was included in the California Cityscapes exhibition at the San Diego Museum. He was a recipient of WESTAF-NEA fellowship in 1990. His work is in corporate and private collections worldwide.
Statement
As society has become increasingly transfixed by digital screens and less attentive to the world around us, I am convinced of the importance of interacting directly with our surroundings. I encounter my subjects first hand in the hope of communicating the extraordinariness of ‘ordinary’ people and places. The communities in which I paint inform me of local history and current events. This influences my interpretation of each location.
Color theory and Perceptionism (a term coined by color theorist Faber Birren) provide a foundation for my work. I weave qualities of light throughout the works to create interacting harmonies that compel attention and convey a mood. These dynamics of color and paint application are essential in communicating the essence of place.
My interest in place has drawn me to paint traditional regions of Europe and Latin America where the close connection to the natural environment sheds light on the surrealistic disassociation of American streets.