About

Inspiration – My Art Spirit

I created my first acrylic painting worthy of hanging while pregnant with my second child in 1972.  Although the image is abstract, the fecundity in it is obvious.  At the time I was already a mother of a seven-year-old, a graduate student in Piano at the New England Conservatory of Music, wife of a professor in his first academic job, and managing the reconstruction of our first home.  That painting hangs in my piano room to this day and I still love it.  I didn’t finish another painting until 2009.  I was busy! But now I’m back at it; learning, and loving creating visual images more than ever; packing into them all that I have seen, felt, experienced, observed, and wondered about over these past 46 years. 

The world has advanced in technology and complexity and population growth at warp speed over this time; we see and do so much so fast – but our deep need to stop and breathe, to take in beauty and experience that which inspires us is more imperative than ever. Beauty is what keeps us human and sane.

What inspires me is color –how one color changes when it is in relationship with another.  That is how we are as human beings too—we change in relationship to others; to the colors of our moods, even our weather.  I am also fascinated by the angles and juxtaposition of lines –how they can create movement, texture and convey energy.  I also find shapes intriguing.  Shapes convey complexity, variability, and possibility.  I try to navigate these intersections as I create energetic images that connect with our humanity, and the myriad textures of life itself. 

We, humans, are creatures who respond to energy – the energy of sound, the color of red or gold or blue, the temperatures of various greens, blues, or rich reds.  We respond by attraction or distraction, repulsion or love, fear, distaste or delight.  And our responses to energy are both conscious and subconscious.  Some responses we notice, others happen without our awareness.  We are drawn to the ocean to hear the waves and feel the water, to breathe ozone; we walk in the redwood forests to be with the trees and feel the strong vertical vibrations that help us align with our higher purposes; we seek out the mountains to gain perspective and feel the groundedness of being alive on earth. 

This is the arena in which I choose to play with visual imagery.  I paint with oils and acrylics, with brushes, spatulas, combs, sand, with water, and palette knives, and swatches of paper, and mediums and gels, and any other thing that dares to come near my hands. I am inspired by the sounds I hear, by the weather fronts moving through, by the sun and the moon and the night and the shapes I see.  I am inspired by human gesture, by the loving ways people show relationship, by the sadness of children alone, and by the havoc, we wreak on the earth and each other, and by the yearnings, we feel to tap into our higher purpose.  I hope that some of those feelings find their way into my images and through them into the eyes and hearts of those who can see and feel my work. 

Study & Training

Since 2009 I have worked intensely to develop technical skills to express what I see and feel through images. (As a music conservatory trained musician I years ago developed the strong discipline needed to build skills.) To this end, I have studied extensively with English oil painter Roger Dellar in Europe as well as here in Delaware.  For more than two years I commuted from Lewes to Alexandria, Virginia to paint in the atelier of American painter Rob VanderZee.  I’ve also studied with contemporary painter Sterling Edwards in North Carolina; I have been inspired by the work of several Delaware artists and taken a number of workshops with Steve Rogers, Tara Funk Grim, Nick Serratore.  One important Delaware artist with whom I did not study but who has influenced my approach to painting is Edward Loper – America’s Cezanne.  I did have the chance to sit with him while he painted and listen to him talk about his technique and his experiences of becoming an artist in Delaware during the mid-twentieth century. 

As an artist member of The Rehoboth Art League, I have enjoyed classes and artistic exchanges with the many talented artists and photographers there.  My work usually hangs in the RAL Members gallery and has been recognized for distinction in a few juried shows.   Of course, the most important training is painting itself, spurred by the deep inner need to express well what one feels inside. I am constantly reading, visiting museums and galleries, seeing films, exhibits and special showings of all kinds of artistic, musical and dance expression, most important – drinking in nature.  An artist is always learning and fitting together little bits of the great puzzle of life. 

Olaive B. Jones

February 2018