Congratulations to our

Award of Excellence Winner

JOHN OLEINIK

John was awarded the first place for his

Oil on Linen Painting

Eve.

About John:

After thirty-five years in architectural practice I decided to turn my attention to oil painting. I have now been painting for the last seven years starting in 2014. I concentrated my working on a number of series including portraits, landscapes, detailed automobile engines, and rollercoaster paintings. This wide diversity of subject matter helped to develop painting skills.

The latest group of paintings is called the Psychological Series. This is an exploration of deep human emotional states in the digital age, such as isolation, rejection, guilt and depression. These paintings are surrealistic abstractions of subconscious thought. I have used symbolic iconography to reinforce allegorical references in a collage style by blending different figures and images to achieve a dream-like state. The pixilation adds a feeling of distortion, interference and fragmentation. I also use the pixilation to inject deeply contrasting colors to compliment the mood of the work. There are about twenty paintings in this series so far and have helped me in dealing with personal loss and isolation resulting from recent events.

About Eve: