Automotive Art Series Olivia Davis
November 20, 2009 by admin · Leave a Comment
OLIVIA DAVIS was born in Paris and educated in Canada, England, Switzerland and France. Having grown up in a family of industrialists (her great grandfather was the engineer and scientist Auguste Rateau, inventor of the turbo compressor, and Rateau turbines), she attended art schools in Paris: the Atelier Farrey Art School and Centre d’Art et Technique Artisanale.
Her work on silk prepared the ground for her perception of the world as a block of colours and shapes. In the past, Olivia’s silk paintings have been exhibited in the USA, Canada, Mexico and France. Not content with the two dimensional feel of silk painting, Olivia started to expand her appreciation of other artistic media, including pastels which allowed a more flowing and more subtle expression, and she turned her hand to Interior Design and Public Art.
The process of her development across and through these quite different media has resulted in the intriguing blend of subtlety and brashness which is manifested in her current collection of paintings in acrylic and mixed media, on canvas. She has always been intrigued by the industrial world. Her earliest memory of iconic pieces of engineering are the Quebec Bridge and the Eiffel Tower, which inspired her vision.
The fascinating environment of the world of Formula One offers fertile ground for exploring the balance between mechanical shapes and the designers and drivers who set them in motion. The result is a dynamic cocktail of colours and industrial shapes which, through their sensitive juxtaposition, draws the viewer into an exciting world.
Olivia was nominated for the SPORTS ARTIST OF THE YEAR AWARD 2007, the only woman among the six finalists.
