Today we’d like to introduce you to Lawrence Oleary Jr.
Hi Lawrence, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today.
I have been painting, teaching, and selling my art for many years. I grew up in New England, Rhode Island. I started very young and got my first commission at ten years old from an art collector neighbor
I have attended many schools of art during my years. From private and group classes to formal schools.
As a Viet Nam war vet, I would paint and draw portraits for my fellow soldiers of their family photos back home or paint places that they would remember and escape to in their minds from time to time. It also kept me deeply involved in my art. I also did several cartoons that I would send home with my letters. My four younger brothers would look forward to my mom reading my letters to them.
I have shown in many art galleries around the globe. However, my most recent travels to new discoveries started in 2017.
In 2017, I traveled by car all the way down the East Coast to Florida. My mission was to paint all of the lighthouses all the way to Florida.
Unfortunately, when I got past the Delaware It was necessary to pay a fee by the hour for most of my findings.
I continued South anyway.
When I arrived in Savannah, I found much beauty. I did get to paint the Tybee Lighthouse by paying to park there for the day.
Savannah was my first experience to see so many beautiful flowers and historic places. I was very attracted to the Azalais. A person told me that they only last for two weeks and then the bloom is gone. This inspired me to make them immortalized so I sat on the side of the road and painted them. While painting on the side of the road a woman approached me and asked me if it was for sale. I sold it to her after it was finished. I spent four months in Savannah prior to departing to Florida and eventually back to New England
After selling the first one, an art collector (Davita Stockton), whom I met at the dog park, asked me to paint her one as well. I did, and she purchased many of my paintings over the years. She has since passed away from cancer.
I, too, battled cancer, and in 1019, I decided to take my boat south and paint along the way. Eighty days later, I arrived back in Savannah. I painted many local landscapes and several abstracts in Savannah during the Pandemic and eventually traveling to the beautiful town of Richmond Hill. To date, I have painted over three hundred painting on my boat art studio. I currently show at Artis on the Coast Art Gallery, Leahey Art Gallery, and Photo Point Art Gallery in Richmond Hill. I also have many works in galleries in New England.
I continue to paint daily in my boat art studio, and currently, many of the postcards in shops and the visitor center are my paintings of the local landscapes in Georgia. I consider this my most valued hope to paint
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Art, as a rule, is a difficult road to make a full-time profession. I mean that as an oil painter not as an advertising artist. I am a full-time artist, actor, and musician. If I am not creating, I am teaching.
My biggest battle was while battling cancer after a very sever auto accident. That was when I left my home and move to my boat. I lived and painted many winters in New England prior to my trip South.
God has a reason for me to be here and sharing my art. There are many spiritual messages in my works.
Like all artists, each of our works tell a story.
I am an eclectic artist with styles in abstract, surreal, representational and figurative.
My abstracts and surreal depict my cancer battles. Many are still available to view on my website.
Growing up I always had the passion to be a full-time artist, my cancer battle made that possible by minimizing my life and opening new doors.
One of my first painting from a Saturday painting class that I took in the 1960’s still hangs in the Cumberland High
School library in Rhode Island
Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I guess what sets me apart from others in that I do not conform to a standard. I am an eclectic artist of many roads of creativity.
From landscapes and portraits to still life’s and abstracts I create.
I guess that my most known art is Nautical scenes and water. I feel very connected to that compositional process.
My abstracts tell very deep metaphysical and often mathematical secret stories. This give the viewer a great journey.
I would mostly in oil, however I do work and teach in acrylic, pastel, and clay. Watercolor would probably be my most unused medium even though I have been trained in that medium.
The feel, smell, texture, and brush techniques of oil really fill my spirit.
I am probably most proud of my works that are published in “Poetry and Art” forever in the Poetry and Art Museum in NYC. Followed by my work awarded to the Whitehouse in 2018 and the Pope
Who else deserves credit in your story?
My mentor and muse history are too expensive to number here.
My Mother and Father always promoted me as I was growing up. My mom would say, “He is going to be a master artist one day. Dad taught me electronics prior to me going into military at a very young age. He would, however, paint with me quite frequently as he was an amateur artist as well as my grandfather. He also supported me and my art at a very young age.
My four brothers always loved my work and gave me positive feedback.
Knowing the my great grandfathers were artists in Ireland was also an inspiration.
I have studied many of the historic masters, and many of them have also inspired me. Both from their stories and techniques to their thought process.
Currently, I am inspired by all of the fellow artists in my life. Their works and techniques continue to amaze me.
I am truly blessed to have so many with such diverse talents in my life.
Currently, I have several friends who are not artists that I will ask to critique my works, and several other professionals
I am always very open to others’ Insight and critique…
My brother Wayne calls me daily, and I share my process with him. I am writing a book about abstracts, and my opening story tells about how he first looked at my abstracts, what he saw, and how it made him feel. I hope to finish this book one day.
My brother Wayne is my Irish twin. (11 months apart lol) and very much positively motivates as well as my 91-year-old mom who I call every morning. She loved to get photos of my latest creations.
My muse, if you have not already guessed is my wonderful loving dog, Kibo
Contact Info:
- Website: www.lawrenceolearyjr.com
- Instagram: Lawrence OLeary Jr. Fine art
- Facebook: Lawrence OLeary Jr Fine art
