I had to use a separate drawing pass to clear the canvas (lock, draw and unlock):
Canvas canvas = null;
try {
canvas = holder.lockCanvas();
if (canvas == null) {
// exit drawing thread
break;
}
canvas.drawColor(colorToClearFromCanvas, PorterDuff.Mode.CLEAR);
} finally {
if (canvas != null) {
holder.unlockCanvasAndPost(canvas);
}
}