About


I am a contemporary painter, based in York, UK of British/Italian extraction and trained in Fine Art at the North Wales School of Art & Design. 


I have exhibited widely throughout Yorkshire, including solo shows at the Helmsley Arts Centre and Beningbrough Hall (National Trust) in North Yorkshire. My work has also been exhibited with the Society of Women Artists at the Mall Galleries in London 2015, 2016, 2020/2021 (online) & 2022, the Great North Art Show, Ripon Cathedral (2015), Ferens Art Gallery, Hull (2018), LFA (Leeds Fine Artists) Showcase 2019 (Huddersfield Art Gallery) & LFA Dean Clough 2018/19) and Highgate Contemporary Art Gallery “Interpretations of Landscape”(2020).


In 2018 I was delighted to be elected a member of Leeds Fine Artists, established 1874, one of the oldest regional arts bodies in the UK.  In 2023 I was honoured to be  elected a Member of the Society of Women Artists, a  British association of women artists established in 1855.


I have collections of work in the UK, US, Sweden, Germany and Eire.




Working primarily in acrylics & mixed media (sometimes employing gold leaf), I favour a muted, unifying colour palette.


I enjoy the interplay of neutral tones with bright colour capturing light and atmosphere, preferring to get the ‘sense’ of a picture rather than relating too much detail.


Texture, sgrafitto (scratching through the wet, buttery paint) and big gestural marks are characteristic of my work, contrasting thick palette knife marks and brushstrokes with thin transparent glazes.


My paintings  often feature the dramatic Yorkshire landscape of moorland, woodland and coast, the Northumberland and Cornish Coastlines  as well as expressive and 'edgy' still life.

Please contact me for further information about works available to purchase.

Luisa Holden SWA

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