"Shenandoah Serenade"  Photography Movie

"Shenandoah Dreams"  Fine Art Movie

Charles Oliver ...about the artist.
For other contemporary and traditional fine art works by the artist please visit: Charles Oliver Art

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 20
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 book “Shenandoah Serenade”.
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: 540-477-3819
Cell: 540-244-1157

Email: oliver@oliverartworks.com

Websites: www.oliverartworks.com
                www.charlesoliverart.com

Home    Art Gallery    Art Slideshow    Photo Gallery    Photo Slideshow    Contact/Bio    Prints    Links