Jason Oliva Archives - Jason Oliva

Racehorse Portraits: Promise me a Cat Painting by Jason Oliva

Posted on April 30, 2013 Written by Jason Oliva

Racehorse portraits jason oliva paintings

Jason Oliva with ‘Promise me a Cat” 2013 Racehorse Portrait

Racehorse Portraits by Jason Oliva

‘Promise Me a Cat’ 2013

Racehorse Portraits are a time-honoured tradition in the world of art and horse racing. With the Kentucky Derby fast approaching, I thought it appropriate to write something about a portrait I painted of a racehorse, earlier this year.

During my career I have painted quite a few portraits – some of people, some of dogs,some of myself - but I was the most excited when I received my first racehorse portrait commission. I knew exactly how I was going to paint it. First, as with all my portraits, I would have a single color field as a background to cancel out the noise of time and place. For this work I decided to use Naples Yellow, a color that reminded me of my all time favourite painting Whistlejacket.

Racehorse Portraits - George Stubbs Jason Oliva

Whistejacket by George Stubss in The National Gallery London

Whistlejacket resides in the National Museum in London, in an auspicious location opposite England’s treasured Turner paintings. Whistlejacket was painted by Theodore Stubbs, the artist who knew more about horse anatomy than any other person, Stubbs had been referred to as the Leonardo Da Vinci of the equine world. I can’t explain why I love the painting so much…best not to question things like that and just get on loving it.

Anyway, I received the photographic source material of Promise me a Cat at the finish line and, just like the single color field, I also knew exactly how the work would look. I would paint out anything that was not the horse, anything not natural, the jockey, the saddle, the reins, everything and just let the portrait simply be about the horse.

I have painted other horses such as Surrey and Three Horses and it is a favorite subject of mine to study but this was the first time that I had been commissioned to capture a specific horse’s image and character. It was a really interesting painting to work on and I was over the moon with the end result.

Racehorse portraits-jason-oliva-painting

Racehorse Portrait: Promise me a Cat Jason Oliva 2013

Painting: Phone II by Jason Oliva 2013 & The Fading Art of Conversation.

Posted on April 4, 2013 Written by Jason Oliva

Painting Phone II Jason Oliva 2013

Painting: Phone II
Jason Oliva
2013
40″ x 32″
[Sold]

Private Collection: New York

Painting by Jason Oliva & The Fading art of Conversation

The commissioner of Phone II had a dream about the original Phone painting from 2004 but envisioned it in orange. Not wanting to duplicate another similar painting of a a rotary phone we conceived of the idea of a candlestick phone. Stay tuned for pictures of Phone II hanging in its new surroundings and also the opportunity to view and obtain Paper Works based on Phone & Phone II in the future.

Thank you

Jason Oliva NYC Artist Signature

The Fading art of conversation

by Sophie Oliva

It is strange to think it was not that long ago when mobile or cell phones were a personal possession of the few, rather than the masses. And before they were a personal possession of the few, well … even the few did not own them. Instead we had landlines and telephone boxes – if you wanted to speak to someone you had to pick up the phone and dial their number and then … wait for it …. speak to them! (or else put a letter in a postbox). That’s right kids, it really is true.

But oh, how times have changed. Isn’t it easy (too easy?) to communicate with someone or be communicated with, in this day and age. And the funny thing is, although we still refer to them as our ‘phones’, nobody really uses them to properly speak to each other. Just like the email replaced the letter, the text has replaced the telephone conversation.

I wonder how many people we would speak to on a daily basis if we actually had to speak to them?

And so the telephone above (Phone II. 2013) and the telephone below (Phone. 2004), apart from being fine paintings, also capture something of a fast-fading past, when communication required a little more effort and as a result, was perhaps a little more real.

Painting Jason Oliva Phone

Phone
Jason Oliva
2004
40″ x 40″

For sale by the Artist

Contact JasonOliva for price and information

Contact [Jason]