About Oliver White
Born in 1981, Oliver drew from a very early age, copying the work of his architect father.
In his early teens, his burgeoning love of music and art first attracted him to the pop art movement of the 1960's, especially the work of Peter Blake. He began to seriously study art, firstly at Penwith College Penzance in the late 90's and later on studied for a Fine Art degree Falmouth college of Art.
During this time, figure drawing from life is where he excelled, though he developed a love of the abstract reliefs of Ben Nicholson and, during his degree, his own work was heavily influenced by the Ocean Park series of paintings by Richard Diebenkor.
On leaving Falmouth, Oliver then began to work as an Oyster farmer and mussel fisherman on the Helford River in south Cornwall, drawing only occasionally.
After a small but successful solo exhibition of his drawings in 2012, he went to study at the Angel Academy of Art in Florence, to learn the rigorous drawing and painting techniques of the renaissance.
Initially there to study for three years, he had to return to England early, to help care for his father who had developed Vascular Dementia. In these years Oliver began to take on portraiture commissions and has completed many, ranging from members of the House of Lords, to leading actors of the Royal Shakespeare Company. On his father's passing and after his marriage to author Susan Fletcher, he began to paint again in earnest.
However, now the land and seascapes of Cornwall, as well as the rivers and waterways near his new home of Stratford-upon-Avon, have become the focus of this next stage of his life, finally becoming a full-time professional artist for the first time.