Contemporary & Traditional Art and Photography by
C H A R L E S O L I V E R
A R T I S T B I O
Charles Oliver ...about the artist.
For other traditional fine art works by the artist please visit: O l i v e r ArtWorks
Charles Alexander Oliver was born in 1948 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He has been creating since he could hold a crayon. He is self-taught basically except for some
direction from his father who was also an artist.
He has been involved with fine art professionally since 1969 when he returned home from Vietnam and the Marine Corps.
During the early 70's he worked as an art consultant to fine artists and exhibited his works in many shows in the Philadelphia, New Jersey and New York areas.
In 1976 he started his commercial art career and continued to do fine art in his spare time. Mr. Oliver has been an art director for several ad agencies, PR firms, newspapers and printers.
In 1988 he was diagnosed with a terminal illness. Charles was told he could expect to live 18 months to 2 years. That was 21 years ago and he hasn't missed a step or looked back.
Charles exhibits his works in many commercial establishments mainly upscale
restaurants, hotels and corporate buildings. He does several one-man art shows, sales
and auctions yearly to benefit national and local charities.
Charles Oliver's works are compelling reflections of the real and unreal that enter a
realm of vibrant abstraction, intricate depiction, and incandescence.
His canvases are filled with extraordinary forms, colors and fantastic landscapes, illuminating a rich inner vision they characterize the unknown mysteries of existence
and memorable vivid new worlds.
His meticulous brushwork and brilliant use of light show an intimacy with modern day impressionist, surrealist and expressionist masters.
Nature is the philosophical framework producing an alliance of Charles' spirit and substance. In the invisible borders of unfamiliar worlds, Charles delves into the correlations of fear and joy, solitude and collision, eternal peace and perpetual movement.
Beholding Charles works, one enters into a voyage encompassing a mental and visceral adventure. The depth of tone and complicated composition produced in a myriad of mixed medias, fascinate and engage the spectator, surprising and awakening them
to their own imagination and meditations.
Mr. Oliver's Surrealist works are a meld or hybrid of surrealism and expressionism that conjures the work of Dali and Pollock in a hybrid form. Charles also has many accomplished works in the impressionism and semi-realism realms.
Mr. Oliver's Impressionist works depict a strong sense of mood, light and color. Charles has a produced a large selection of works that are compiled in his book “Old Town Reflections” which are depictions of scenes in the Old Town section of Manassas, Va.
Charles produced these works during the time he was a resident from 2002 to 2007.
Charles moved to Mount Jackson, Va. to a mountaintop home in the latter part of 2007
to continue his series of works on the Shenandoah Mountains and Valley which were recently compiled in his books “Shenandoah Serenade” and "Shenandoah Dreams".
Charles Oliver is truly one of the most accomplished, versatile and prolific American artists of our time.
In The Artist's Own Words...
"I have been creating since I could hold a crayon. I am self-taught other than my father's tutoring (he is also an artist) and a couple years of high school art classes. I have been involved with fine art professionally since 1969 when I returned home from Vietnam and the Marine Corps. In 1976 I started my commercial art career. I got tired of being a starving fine artist. I have been an art director for several ad agencies, newspapers and print media firms. In 1992 I moved here to Virginia and went back to the fine arts area.
In '97 I started my fine art creations full time and haven't looked back since. There never seems to be enough time in the day to pursue all I want to do in art. I live, breathe and dream creation. I also enjoy website design and programming, digital photography (I use my own photos as a basis in some of my work)."
Recent works are on display at Carmello's and Okra's restaurants in Old Town Manassas and several galleries in the Shenandoah valley, Washington, DC and Philadelphia areas.
O l i v e r ArtWorks
Mailing Address:
Charles Oliver
O l i v e r Artworks
642 Hilltop Lane
Mount Jackson, VA 22842
Phone: 540-908-4870
Cell: 540-624-2244
Email: oliver@oliverartworks.com
Websites: O l i v e r ArtWorks Charles Oliver Art