Bruce Holwerda

This artist's work is really out of the ordinary. I saw this oil painter at another Art Festival in Naperville. His work was on the fliers and posters for the show. It was hanging up on all the light posts in downtown Naperville weeks before the show. The image on the poster was very intreguing and eye catching. I would slow down every time I drove past one of the fliers to try and figure out what the figure was doing. I finally got to see the image up close in the Bruce Holwerda's tent. It was of a man riding an orb like object. Yes I agree it was a little wierd. The man was wearing a colorful outfit and had a court jester looking hat on his head. His face was painted with many different shades that looked like deliberate face paint. His expression was very excited and enthusiastic as if in the middle of an act or performance. The loose brush strokes gave the painting a fun and care free feel. The background was plain yet the brush strokes had been pushed in a way to create motion and speed. The orb he was riding looked as if it had exhaust pipes coming out of the back of it turning it into a futuristic vehicle.

As I looked around the tent and saw lots of interesting figures. They all seemed to look like circus performers with painted red noses. Many of them looked like they were silhouettes painted in with wild intense splashes of paint. Almost like Pollack's action painting, but with complete control over every movement. I fell in love with Holwerda's work. His work has a surrealistic quality to it and that automatically caught my eye. Several of his figures wear extravagant head dresses in which you can find a whole new picture. You can't see it at first glance, but if you look closely you can find miniature people dancing around holding indescribable contraptions. Mechanical objects pertrude out around the figures heads. This series of paintings reminded me a lot of Mr. Marcet's style of painting, because he likes to incorporate suddle surrealism in his work as well.
Holwerda work was so much fun to look at and his precise study of the figure incorporated with action painting as sudle surrealistic qualities mad his work one of a kind. I am amazed that I haven't seen any of his work in an art museum yet. I recommend you check out his work. He'll be famous sooner or later! http://www.bruceholwerda.com/