Ronald L Oliver

A Retrospective Look Ronald L Oliver

This collection looks back at the drawings and paintings done over a lifetime. It began with a hunger to create by drawing when I was around twelve years old. This book represents a chance to put them altogether into a whole that may make more sense.

From the start, I have used drawing and painting as a way of calming down, concentrating and focusing on settling things around me. By calling them ]artwork] I could make them look as I wanted them to remain. I thought they should speak with my voice and say what I wanted to say. It came natural to me because that was what I wanted. It was just that simple. I still see things that way: there is the passing and there is the fixed. It seems like there was a basic need to draw, paint, and express what was inside. I could organize and put things together on paper or canvas that went together in no other way, at no other time. It was a way out of myself and I took it. At times, it was the best way to do things when was no other way.

I was first inspired by a glossy photo-journal of the early sixties with photographs of Caroline Kennedy on top of a horse. They went together and it all made sense. Her father was highly esteemed but was later shot while riding a convertible in Dallas, but Caroline lives. It makes for a sad story but that is the way that many stories go. One lives and learns.

When I later tried to ride a horse in imitation it ran to the middle of an interstate expressway and stopped in its tracks. I loved horses until I learned they were not all without fault. I found they had a will of their own that was often greater than that of the rider. Regardless, they were often better on paper than in real life. I started drawing with a pencil and charcoal but later graduated to oils paints, acrylics, pastels and finally watercolours. I saved the best for last.