Geoffrey Holdsworth - Earlier Work

" Over time this page will expand as I continue to archive thirty years of painting.These are a few examples. The images will eventually be organized by theme, exhibition and collection. Earlier art sometimes becomes available for purchase. Current collectors of my work are welcome to enquire about offering their works for aquisition on this page. Please look in from time to time and feel free to offer any comments in the realization of this project."

Painted from life over a few weeks I was racing the seasons rains to capture the autumn colors. Large molar like clouds punctuated the sky. Later I used watercolors to paint plein air, but soon I will be returning to oils for their strong color and controlled composition.

One morning I just got up and went searching for an elusive elm to paint. I found this specimen near the town of Hensall. As an isolated elm it has escaped the disease that has ravaged its genus. This classic and towering elm still stands over the fields.

Once I was asked if I would do something about Canada's military history. Later I had the opportunity to draw an old World War One map along with some symbolic objects. As for the wise old owl, he was Found On the Road Dead, presumably hit by a FORD.

A primative cedar shake shack provided a chilly shelter for a friend and myself who spent the hard winter hungry and poor. In the severe elements, two old horses perished whereby the semi wild cats and dogs found abundant nourishment. This painting is a salute to those days in the early 1970s.

This was one of those rare paintings that was somehow effortlessly brushed with hardly a mistroke. Still, it took six months to paint but I particularly enjoyed painting Kathy and the antique distorted glass window with its lone replaced pane.

Children are annually bringing home to their parents these fallen nestlings in the hope that they can be restored to their nests. We empathize with their sense of hopeless and loss. That's just the way it is kids! The chick is painted oversized so as to enlarge the emotional impact.

I considered doing a painting of the Stallion with these carrion eaters atop, but was happy just with the drawing. These vultures have noticably expanded in numbers since I was young and often observed them in Beaver Valley Ontario.

Nearly a decade after I visited Jerusalem, I began the most ambitious painting of my career. Although it is a cityscape, the colors, ancient structures and topography all felt like a landscape. A simple hot palette of cadmium red, yellow, ultramarine blue and white lead made the painting reverberate.