Archival Prints on Paper or Canvas for Peanuts!

Anthony Holdsworth July 28, 2011

If you, like most of us, have tightened your belt in this ailing economy you've probably decided to forgo purchasing luxuries like original art.

I am offering limited edition, archival prints on paper or canvas of some of my best paintings at unusually low prices. Prices that are one half to one quarter the going rate for archival reproductions!

To view the full inventory click on 'Shop' at the top of this page.

Created under my supervision at Magnolia Editions in Oakland, the prints on paper are pigmented ink-jet on archival paper. The prints on canvas, which to the casual eye are indistinguishable from original paintings, are stretched and ready to hang. They are protected with two layers of UV resistant matt varnish.

These are not the original works, but they are as close as you can get for a fraction of the price.

Because they are signed, limited editions they will appreciate modestly over time. Properly cared for they should remain vibrant for four to five generations.

Painted on location in San Francisco, Italy, Istria, Oakland, Mexico and Cuba the more than forty images start at $ 125 for a square foot print on paper (edition limited to 200). The large prints on canvas (five square feet – edition limited to forty) signed and ready to hang are $ 700.

Consider purchasing these archival prints not only for your home or office but as special gifts for close friends and family.

For rebates on shipping and handling fees::

If you are within driving distance of my studio, phone me when you make your order. We can arrange for you to pick up your purchase and I will refund the shipping and handling fees at that time.(It may take me two or three days to return your call. Production of prints may take up to ten days.)

Purchasing the original works:

Some of the original oil paintings are available for sale at my Studio or at SFMOMA Artists Gallery at Fort Mason in San Francisco

Revisit my site every few months to view new additions to my inventory.

Global Warming Paintings at the San Francisco Federal Building: March 18 - June 1, 2010

Anthony Holdsworth March 18, 2010

My two Global Warming Triptychs, set in San Francisco and in Oakland, will be on exhibition at the San Francisco Federal Building, 90 7th St (at Mission) from March 18 to June 1. The exhibition will occupy the ground level of the lobby. To purchase prints of the paintings shown in this blog go to "Featured Works" in the Shop.

Across a Hundred Years, oil on canvas, 2007

This is an appropriate location to showcase the Series for two reasons.

1. This building, designed by Thom Mayne, is the first 'green' Federal Building in the country.

2. The idea for this series occurred to me while I was painting this building from the corner of Mission and 7th St. That painting "Across a Hundred Years" is included in the exhibition.

The Global Warming Series is an invitation to you to actively imagine our future if global warming remains unchecked. These paintings are not predictions. They are science fiction. There are too many variables for us to predict the future of our planet with any precision. Only by exercising our imagination can we begin to grasp the enormity of the effect our species is having on this planet, and, perhaps, take measures to lessen our impact.

Here are the central panels of the two Triptychs:

For San Francisco

San Francisco Global Warming Triptych # 2, oil on canvas, 2008

For Oakland

Oakland Global Warming Triptych # 2, oil on canvas, 2009

Also on exhibition will my recent painting of the Chronicle, and a ten foot wide painting of the Bay Bridge both created on location in San Francisco:

Storm Clouds over the Chronicle, oil on canvas, 2009

The Federal Building is open to those who wish to view my exhibition. Please inform security at the front door of your interest. If you intend to bring a large group contact Conference Center manager, Mike Ladd, in advance at 415.625-2756 , 415.948.8531 [email protected]

Uptown Unveiled: The Fox and Paramount Theaters, Oakland, June 18

Anthony Holdsworth June 14, 2009

I've painted them on several occasions. Now my guest blogger, Annalee Allen, will fill you in on a celebration which will showcase two of Oakland's premier movie palaces: Annalee Allen

The upcoming Uptown Unveiled street party on June 18th presents an opportunity to showcase both of Oakland's movie palace gems - the Paramount Theatre on Broadway, and the newly restored Fox Oakland Theater on Telegraph Avenue. The lobbies of both theaters will be open for viewing, and guides with the Oakland Tours Program will be leading walks from one venue to the other throughout the evening.

Anthony Holdsworth's portraits of both theaters, seen altogether on this site, capture the sense of expectation and excitement patrons must have felt eight decades ago when both theaters, with capacities to seat 3000-plus people, offered a few hours of escape into the wide world of entertainment. A check of the history files reveals that several other theaters were operating in downtown during that time - the twenties and thirties, but the opening of the Fox in 1928, and the Paramount in 1931 represented a new level of architectural opulence and patron accommodation. Purchasing a ticket for 44 cents (55 cents for the loge level) meant transport to worlds and time periods far far away, files say.

Over the years, at the Fox, well-known vaudevillians and stars like Ginger Rogers, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and the Jimmy Dorsey Band took the stage during movie intermissions. During the year long construction period for the Paramount, which occurred as the

Great Depression

was deepening, dozens of subcontractors employed hundreds of steelworkers, plumbers, carpenters and artisans to work on the mammoth structure. On opening day the Paramount was reported to be the largest movie house on the

West Coast

While the style of the Fox suggests a "Brahamanian Temple of Northern India," with a tower dome encrusted with colored tiles, the Paramount, designed by noted

San Francisco architect Timothy Pflueger, is a towering tribute to the Jazz Age and Moderne styled Art Deco. It too features highly unusual glazed

mosaic tile panels, flanking the neon blade sign, that depict stylized male and female puppet masters crowned with stars, dangling golden strings with performing arts figures.

How exciting it must have been to see those neon letters on the theaters' towering signs, glowing nightly, drawing folks downtown to shows, dining, and dancing.

According to the files, the acquisition and restoration of the Paramount Theatre by the Oakland Symphony Association in the early 1970's, was seen as the start of a major trend around the country to take aging

movie palaces

and convert them in to

performing arts centers

. A modest $4 million, funds contributed by a few key locally prominent civic minded leaders, and matched by energetic community volunteers who mounted a one dollar per person fundraising campaign, was what it took back in 1973, to reopen the Paramount Theatre. The rescue of the Fox took much longer and was far more complicated. That remarkable story will be retold on June 18th by the volunteer guides of the Oakland Tours20Program at the Uptown Unveiled street party. In addition, the Uptown tour will be repeated monthly through the summer months, the dates and times are posted on the web at

Oaklandnet.com/walkingtours

We owe a debt of gratitude to those who refused to give up on the idea that

Oakland

could have not one but two major downtown landmark venues, fully restored and open for all to enjoy. For more on uptown's renaissance check out

www.MeetDowntownOak.com

East Bay Open Studios 2009

Anthony Holdsworth May 27, 2009

Saturdays and Sundays June 6 & 7, 13 & 14, 2009
11AM - 6PM
351 Lewis St Oakland, CA 94110
Google Map

The East Bay hosts one of the highest per capita concentrations of visual artists in the United States. You've probably never heard of most of them. Many are not represented by local galleries.

Four artists, who have attended my painting workshops in Oakland, Mexico or Italy, are taking part in Open Studios. They are O'Brien Theile and Ron Weil both in Berkeley, Marvin Dalander in Alameda. And Lorrie Fink in Oakland.

I've participated in East Bay Open Studios every year since it's inception in the early 80's. Pro Arts is an artist membership organization which has acted as an entry point into the art world for emerging talent. It hosts a number of exhibitions each year. My exhibition with Pro Arts in 1986 garnered a full page review (by Charles Shere and Susan Stern) in the Oakland Tribune, as well as a gallery connection. Sales from this show enabled me to phase out my landscape gardening business and devote myself full time to painting.

This year I am showcasing my painting of the San Francisco Chronicle (Storm Clouds over the Chronicle) and the Farmer's Market painting that was featured in an article by Brenda Payton in the San Francisco Chronicle. I will be showing other examples of my Farmers' Market Series and Urban Garden Series as well as new urban landscapes.

You are welcome to explore my racks in the mezzanine where I store about a hundred paintings, and to take part in lively conversation with other guests over wine, cheese and cappuccinos.

I look forward to seeing you.

Desde Las Calles Abajo in the collection of UNEAC Santigo de Cuba

Three weeks in Cuba a Painter's Perspective

Anthony Holdsworth March 16, 2009

In 2001 the Oakland Museum of California commissioned me to create a painting of Oakland as a gift to Oakland's sister city Santiago de Cuba. This painting 'Desde las Calles Abajo' ('From the Streets Below') now hangs in Santiago.

The next year my wife, son and I were invited to a family wedding in Havana. We jumped at the opportunity to travel and paint in Cuba for three weeks, and to visit Santiago. To give you a taste of what it is like on the street in Cuba I have posted two paintings along with diary excerpts that relate to these paintings.

U.S. relations with Cuba are again being hotly debated. It is impossible to make sense of this debate without an understanding of our tangled history with Cuba. One of the most qualified sources is film maker and writer Saul Landau. His extensive series of films documenting the Cuban revolution can be found on DVD at Round World Productions. He is also syndicated with both Counterpunch.org and Progreso-weekly.com

My travels in revolutionary Nicaragua in 1984 and 1985 (See Video From Oakland to Nicaragua ) convinced me that painting on location is one of the best ways to gain an in-depth understanding of another culture. To set up an easel on a street corner and begin painting is a passport into local culture. I am not taking a picture and leaving. I am composing a painting from start to finish under the watchful eyes of the community. Everyone gathers around and shares their stories. Since I return to a location over several days I become familiar with the texture and rhythm of daily life. .

Some of you may want to download the complete diary: Anthony Holdsworth and Beryl Landau Three Weeks in Cuba Diary' (PDF)

Morning on the Malecon, Havana, Cuba, oil/canvas, 18 x 24, 2002

Excerpt from "Three Weeks in Cuba" that relates to the painting above:
Wed Aug 14: On the Malecon near Hotel Deuville I started painting a view west down the Malecon. A bunch of kids, seven to ten years old, gathered around me. While I was laying out my design, I pretended not to speak any Spanish and ignored them. A policeman hovered on the periphery. There's a policeman on nearly every block in old Havana. The kids are real toughs. They scuffled, fist fought and threw stones at one another. The officer pretty much ignored their quarrels. Finally a street cleaner with a broom and small wagon, who'd stopped to watch me, admonished them that I was trying to work and they retreated across the street. A tall, black man hung around for a long time. I noticed that he was holding a small canvas. Turns out he's a painter. He wanted to know what colors I used and was very surprised to learn I painted with black, which he never uses. He showed me his painting: a primitivist portrait of a woman in a tropical landscape.
Thurs Aug 15: This morning I finished-my view down the Malecon. The painter from yesterday returned this morning with a gift of a drawing. I asked him if he would pose for me for a few minutes in the colonnade. Afterward I got his address so that I can send him a reproduction of the painting. We talked while I worked. He told me that it was his birthday today. That he was forty, and that he's a professor of mathematics, but his first love has always been painting.

The Framboyan Tree, Tivoli, Santiago de Cuba

Wed Aug 21: Barrio Tivoli
Anthony: I started my second painting several blocks southeast of the historic center beyond the Escaleras de Padre Pica in the Tivoli district. There are several spectacular views here. I picked the simplest because I'm afraid of getting bogged down. Ramshackle housing high up on the right descends by steep steps, down to a street that plunges towards the bay. On the left stands a lovely red flowered framboyan tree, the national tree of Cuba. A freighter is moored in the distant slice of bay. I was immediately surrounded by kids, much better behaved than their counterparts in Havana. A handsome Rastafarian came down from the house above the steps. He was delighted to learn that I was from Oakland because he was interested in the Black Panthers. He invited me in for coffee but I demurred until tomorrow because it was nearly time for me to leave and rejoin Beryl.
Beryl (Beryl Landau) : This was our best day so far in Santiago. Anthony went off painting after breakfast and I started another view from the balcony. Anthony returned, and we had to leave to meet the artist Pagan; so I didn't have time to finish my watercolor. Pagan took us to visit two artists who live nearby. En route to the first one, Jose Horruitiner, it started pouring and we had to wait under an overhang until it subsided...
Thurs, Aug 22
Anthony: I feel very comfortable in Barrio Tivoli away from the center of town. I was joined by my new Rastafarian friend who lent me a pair of powerful binoculars to examine the bay. His girlfriend brought me a demitasse of sweet espresso. He told me that his two passions are painting and poetry. Whenever he needs money in Havana he paints pictures. A backup source of income are his necklaces. He told me he used to like to smoke a joint first thing in the morning followed by a cup of strong Cuban coffee. Then he would paint and string beads for hours. His friends would ask him where he found the patience, but he considered it a better activity than running in the streets and fighting. I observed that there are thousands of people in the U.S. in jail for dealing or using marijauna. He said it was the same in Cuba.. He had spent six months in jail for smoking. I put his grandmother in my painting as she stood on their balcony.
Thurs, Aug 23
Back in Bario Tivoli for a few last touches to my painting. A man sweeps the street with a large bristle broom. People with buckets loudly hawk avocados and yucca.
"La yucca! La yucca! Caliente la buena yucca!"
Men and women hurry to work, some with briefcases, from shacks so run down they'd be condemned in Oakland. A man pulls his vintage motorcycle with sidecar up against the curb below the embankment where I'm standing. He takes our a bucket of yellow paint and a brush and begins retouching his vehicle. My rastafarian friend descends from his home with another brush and lends a hand. After they've finished, the man's wife,small child in her arms, gingerly climbs into the sidecar trying to avoid contact with all the wet paint. Like most Cuban drivers who are always trying to conserve gas, they coast down the hill towards the bay.
My friend brings me a cup of coffee. The kids gather round. One of them throws a stone across the street and is gently reprimanded by adults who are watching from their balconies. A skinny old man with a hawk-like face stops and asks me where I'm from. He brightens when I say the U.S. and breaks into impeccable English. I ask him how he learned to speak so well.
"In the streets. I was a guide for American sailors. I showed them where to drink and find a good fuck. I was a boy then. Now I'm an old man."
I move up onto my friend's balcony. The three young women who had been staying as his guests all kiss him goodbye and exhort me to paint him "el mas feo," the ugliest man in the neighborhood. Taller Luis Diaz O This afternoon Pagan took us out to the Taller 'Luis Diaz 0.' in the Vista Allegre district. The administrator Idalmnis Reyes Dominguez explained that this was a hybrid organization, principally a series of small studios for more than twenty painters, sculptors, ceramicists and printmakers, but also a small gallery and cultural center. Pagan who does not have a space here avails himself of the printmaking studio.
It's surprising how many museums, galleries and artists' organizations there are in this town. UNEAC even publishes a couple of quality art magazines...

Some of you may want to download the complete diary: Anthony Holdsworth and Beryl Landau Three Weeks in Cuba Diary (PDF).

About the artist

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, Bruce McGaw 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.

Anthony Holdsworth

Dispatches from the street