The Paintings of David Oleski The Studio Journal
Fall of the Year 2008
See the Gallery for some exciting detailed images of the artist's work.
Autumnal EquinoxThe page turns again...
Read on...to Winter of 2008
Thursday, September 11, 2008 Day of RemembranceHe stared at the blank page, and finally reached for the pencil. As he picked it up, he could still see where the pencil had been, from the dust on the table. How long had it been since he moved that pencil? Even without having written anything, he could read how much didn't exist in that space any more, in that one small imprint in the dust. So many days and weeks passed without having been documented and described. So many experiences that were only lived, without being captured. Sometimes he'll pause, and realize that the silence in the studio is ringing, with nothing but the sound of the forest. Sometimes he'll start to reach for his journal to make some notes, but something else will draw his attention. Day after day, week after week, the fabric of time is just one live, streaming, full motion experience.
Quick recap, on August 11th I finished a large study of a bouquet of sunflowers.
Click on the image to see a larger version.On August 20th, I finished a commission of three granny smith apples for an anniversary gift.
Click on the image to see a larger version.On August 28th, I finished a tentative commission of three granny smith apples. The update is that the commission continues to be developed, and this painting is now available to the public.
Click on the image to see a larger version.On Monday, September 1st, I finished a small commission of two green apples, as a wedding gift.
On Tuesday, September 2nd, I nailed down a small study of a single prune plum.
And today, on September 11th, I finished yet another of the staggeringly huge studies of three green apples.
Click on the image to see a larger version.It does seem as though I've been painting almost nothing but apples for several months now, after so many months of trying to avoid painting apples at all. It's always apples, more and more and more apples.
Friday, August 1, 2008I finished the largest painting I've ever done, measuring at five feet by seven feet. Suddenly making it look easy has never been so hard.
Click on the image to see a larger version.
Sunday, July 27, 2008Suddenly everything explodes with color. It's hard to look at this, it's hard to even think about it.
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Thursday, July 17, 2008In an effort to push the envelope even further, I carved out another study of granny smith apples, using the same bold background. I decided to turn up the heat a bit on the shadows, and found some brighter tones to make things really vibrate.
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Monday, July 14, 2008Yesterday I celebrated my birthday, and now I'm two hundred and forty seven years old.
Despite endless food and merriment throughout the weekend, I managed to start on a new study of granny smith apples. Last winter I was playing around with some color replacement functions in Photoshop, and I found some interesting effects by combining some very synthetic and artificial background colors with some traditionally rendered foreground subjects. Just to toss things up a bit, I decided to pair a trio of rendered green apples with a brisk and bold robin's egg blue field. It was a fairly solid and standard study until I started laying down the bold and brash new color for the surrounding field. It's exciting and attractive in one way while at the same time being strangely repulsive.
Happy birthday to me.
Click on the image to see a larger version.
Monday, July 7, 2008After a trip to Tampa to visit my father and a trip to East Hampton for an exhibit, I'm finally home again.
Friday, June 28, 2008Three granny smith apples, against a blazing teal background.
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Friday, June 27, 2008Two granny smith apples.
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Monday, June 23, 2008Eleven granny smith apples.
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Saturday, June 21, 2008 Summer SolsticeI had the strangest dream, that my house was a vast ranch in the middle of a city. I was giving someone a tour, showing how my narrow property extended back endlessly into the distance, explaining how I currently have about a dozen horses, but no longer do I have cattle. The time was late afternoon, the sky was bright, but the light was starting to turn golden. For some reason I had two separate extra pens, as I explained "in case I get some other animals as well". Up a short hill from the barn was the main house, and I looked out the window and saw none other than Richard Harrington walking up the hill, his face beaming with his usual good nature. Odd, that he would be visiting. For some reason my mother was there too, so I had a chance to introduce the two of them, and Richard walked down to the barn to set about making some coffee. I told him I'm not so sure about the water in the pail he was using, but he said it's all under control, no problem. I was really not so sure about the water in that pail, but I know it's no good to try to steer Richard from the path he's found. I continued giving someone a tour, walking out to the street in front of my house, noticing how everything seemed to be skewed at odd angles. We walked down a strikingly steep hill to the corner, and I pointed out how my house is actually several properties away from the complex of barns, and only a few doors up from the bottom of the hill. The bottom of the hill was like something from a nightmare, the house on the corner was at least fifty feet up from the sidewalk, the roots of the trees were exposed the whole way down to the crooked sidewalk, only the property itself was at such a bizarre height above the street. The idea of trying to walk out the front door down to the sidewalk made me dizzy with vertigo. At a certain point I realized I was giving my tour to my friend Mike from Texas, who rarely seems to be impressed by anything. We continued around the block, past dark gothic buildings, under a foreboding highway underpass, and then our path was lit by storefront windows sparkling with modern graphics and lighting. On the next block we came out from under the underpass, and I was in the middle of the city at night, and the cool wind was blowing through the streets. This was all within 2 blocks of my house, and the barns, and the horses, and Richard Harrington making coffee.
In some way I didn't feel any more of a sense of order or simplicity waking up to my house on the hill, surrounded by a dense and dark forest, high above a deep dark lake, with so many landscaping projects spread across several acres of land, all careening crazily down this maddeningly twisted road in life I have found.
Spring is now over and Summer has begun, and today I started throwing paint down on a tentative commission of eleven granny smith apples.
If you find yourself hungering for yet more dramatization of the angst of a painter, see Spring of 2008 for the previous season's struggles.Previous issues:
Spring 2008| Winter 2007/08
Fall 2007 | Summer 2007 | Spring 2007 | Winter 2006/07
Fall 2006 | Summer 2006 | Spring 2006 | Winter 2005/06
Fall 2005 | Summer 2005 | Spring 2005 | Winter 2004/05
Fall 2004 | Summer 2004 | Spring 2004 | Winter 2003/04
Fall 2003 | Summer 2003 | Spring 2003 | Winter 2002/03
Fall 2002 | Summer 2002 | Spring 2002 | Winter 2001/02
Fall 2001 | Summer 2001 | Spring 2001 | Winter 2000/01
Fall 2000 | Summer 2000 | Spring 2000 | Winter 1999/2000
Fall 1999 | Summer 1999 | Spring 1999 | Winter 1998/99
Gallery - - Exhibition Schedule
