About the Artist

My name is Oliver Thompson, better known as Olly. I am a dreamscape impressionist painter from Turlock, California. I currently live in San Francisco and I have been consistently painting since 2019.

Paint can do without Olly, but Olly cannot do without paint. My journey as an artist has been quite a unique one, starting at a very pivotal moment in my life. At the time I was on a fence, debating a life without something to look forward to, or a life of creating. My passion sprung fiercely from the start and I have UCSB to thank for the opportunity to work at the College of Creative Studies with some great mentors like Hank Pitcher and Steve Sorensen. By 2020, I had finally started to adapt a sense of my style as an artist, as this when I switched from acrylic to oil paint. That year was also when I began writing philosophy / cryptic poetry / analytical reasoning, and since then I have written over 300 pages and I am currently working on the third “Book of Olly.” Life-shifting events began to occur since I began both painting and writing, it is though the path for me was made visible. Life, is like a river, we all are subject to the nature of it. You drown, not by falling into the river, but by being submerged in it. Your passionate actions are that which drive you out of the river to safety. The actions that lack passion are that which brings you into the mundane and will lead you away from the path of self-fulfillment. I have a strong urge to be a well rounded artist, but I still have a day job as a teacher. I am the Head of the Visual and Performing Arts Department at Headlands Preparatory School so I teach all of the art classes there and have made a great impact on guiding my students to harness their creativity, but also teach several science courses as well.

I describe my myself as a “dreamscape impressionist” where my paintings are often imaginary landscapes filled with color and ethereal feelings. Although I do paint landscapes and flowers primarily, my style has set me a part from other impressionists. I do not often use reference photos for my paintings, and if I do I alter them to my liking. I have had more success in the recent years selling my art, as in the beginning I would hoard them and painted primarily for myself. Now that I have made a name and style for myself I have gotten more recognition in the art world and I recently have been admitted entry into the Artists Guild of San Francisco.