Artist Bunny Oliver paints with vivid colors and bold brushstrokes, finding joy in the creation of each piece. When viewers show an enthusiastic response to her work she feels that her efforts are validated. After years of sporadic efforts to learn to paint, in 1987 Oliver took a workshop from Ray Vinella in the mountains of Taos, New Mexico. Inspired by Vinella and the incredible setting, she painted more and more and was consumed with a desire to create beautiful images. Painting every available moment, she read art books constantly and studied paintings in museums and galleries. Additional workshops with Vinella and other noted artists such as Kevin Macpherson, Don Ward, Gay Falkenberry and Ron Rencher followed.
Oliver wants viewers to pause and experience the beauty that surrounds them, since everyone can be so busy hurrying and scurrying around. In her work, Oliver strives to portray the beauty in everyday scenes to encourage viewers to take a moment to appreciate the way the light falls on a garden path or the brilliant colors in a simple vase of fresh-picked flowers. She achieves this through an emphasis on color.
Oliver has exhibited at the Biennale Internazionale dell’Arte Comtempoanea in Florence, Italy, and Texas State Society’s Black Tie and Boots Inaugural Ball in Washington, DC. She also helped to establish a scholarship program for young people in Juticalpa, Honduras, using her dream to help them realize their dreams. Her work has been represented by galleries from California to Pennsylvania, and currently may be seen by appointment at her studio/gallery in Austin, Texas.
In my work I seek to portray the beauty in everyday things – everyday scenes – to encourage viewers to take a moment to appreciate the way the light falls on a garden path or the brilliant colors in a simple vase of fresh-picked flowers. Color excites me and I love to emphasize it.
