David Oleski

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David Oleski received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Maryland Institute, College of Art in 1983.  He is currently living with his wife and several animals in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Oleski has been a practicing professional artist since 1999.

Creative drive:
“Just when I think I’ve learned enough about green, a simple apple proves it can teach me just one more thing. There are so many directions that green can shift and change. I can think of cadmium yellow as being the yellow version of the effect of red, compared to lemon yellow being the yellow version of blue, and alizarin crimson has more of a blue effect of red, and allows cadmium yellow to become a complimentary color that darkens everything. Now white acts like blue, and immediately makes everything flash with a cool brightness, and yellow is now the color of light. Back and forth, around and around, there’s no end to it

Every day my studies include pondering these abstract color relationships, calculating every aspect of light, form, space and depth. I spend countless hours mixing colors and comparing them and referencing them against real life. It’s always a surprise when I take a step back from the easel and realize that I’ve reached a certain point of resolution and balance. The paintings I create are the by-product of these studies; when I’ve learned enough from one study, I’ll scratch my name into the paint and move on. There’s always more to learn on the next one."

Key emotion represented in work:
"It’s all just technical studies of subjects, an endless exploration of light and shadow and depth and mass. I should feel something, but I don’t."

What is unique about your process:

"I work on only one painting at a time, working continuously for session after session until it’s finished, and then I’ll use the back end of a brush to scratch my name and the date into the wet paint on the lower right corner. I only work from observation. When I paint apples, there are apples in front of me, when I paint tulips, I’m looking at a bouquet of tulips, and I’m racing against the flowers blooming and wilting with each passing day. I only work by natural light, so I have to calculate my sessions to either finish by sunset, or plan on another session. This process dictates that the painting will always be about observation, and I will always strive to capture how I see, not merely create a painting. The way I work is very thorough and meticulous, to match each color of a still-life and lay it down in a very specific and calculated manner. This is how I learned to paint in art school, and I continue to learn more and more about space and depth and atmosphere with each study that I finish."

Personal relationship with your work:
"It’s all a celebration of being alive, capturing the world as I see it through my eyes.”

Thoughts on sharing art:
“It is a very abstract form of communication, to share how we see, what we see, how we capture what we see. Many people respond to the view of the world through the eyes of an artist, and it’s up to the artists to continue to translate their world for everyone else."

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