A FEW WORDS ABOUT Olivia

Olivia is a recognised Fine Artist working primarily in oils and professional acrylics. She often employs bold colours with an emotive tableau in a post-impressionistic manner, largely drawing upon the natural elements of the coast along the Stour on the Essex/Suffolk borders where she lives.

Having suffered a near fatal Brain Haemorrhage and undergoing emergency brain surgery in December 2015, Olivia received two years of therapy and was encouraged by her Neuro Rehabilitation professionals to take up painting for the first time to aid with cognitive processing in a non-stressful way.

Olivia embraces the peaceful solitude of painting whilst her paintings have given her a real sense of purpose.

In October 2018, Olivia was accepted by the board of Lloyds of London Art Exhibition, entering three oil paintings in this her first exhibition.  Olivia sold her first ever work "Turbulent Times" for £695, then her second "Final Breath of a Wave" for £495.

Olivia went on to win two of the three awards that year namely the prestigious "Best Emerging Artist" and "The Public Vote” which were presented at a ceremony, within the Old Library by the Chairman of Lloyd’s Bruce Carnegie-Brown.

In October 2019 Olivia won the Lloyds Exhibition Public vote for a second time and the following year 2020 she came 2nd.

Quite bewildered by events, Olivia simply donated all her sale money and the public vote monetary prize to Headway (the Brain Trauma Charity) who were instrumental in her long-term rehabilitation and The Coombe Trust (London Homeless Charity, now partnered with Emmaus). 

Olivia repeated this the following year, selling all three paintings by the second day of the weeklong exhibition and again donated funds to charity, namely Headway, and also The Coombe Trust, Beacon House Ministries Colchester and Colchester Emergency Night Shelter (CENS).

Olivia’s art has genuinely given her a sense of purpose whereby she embraces the solitude and is determined to continue to raise funds for charity, it was not long after her initial success, several organisations made contact to request Olivia donate some of her paintings for charity auctions, if none were ready, she simply took paintings from her personal gallery wall at home to donate, a version of Aurora Deux sold for £600 to raise money for a young lady’s stem cell treatment in America, a similar version of Stour in Bloom sold for £800 at a Headway Charity Ball where she was guest of honour.  The Chief Executive Joanna Wright dedicated an emotive presentation on Olivia, her journey and all that she has overcome.

The founder of The Coombe Trust, Donald Coombe, MBE, JP, took great interest in Olivia’s journey and her fundraising efforts after having met at the London Exhibition, he became instrumental in proposing Olivia be put forward for the Freedom Of The City of London award, the ceremony took place at London Guildhall on 3rd December 2019 where Olivia’s profession is recorded as ‘Artist’ which to her means…. “It must be true”.

From the realisation of being told she had in all probability only fifteen minutes to live or would survive with life changing consequences, she underwent emergency brain surgery followed by eighteen months of speech therapy and two years of cognitive therapy.  Whilst the old Olivia is not always visible, her essence remains unwavering.

Finding joy in every painting she creates is a magical thing, especially when one becomes aware that Olivia cannot retain new information well, or often at all, she has little recollection of the technicalities used in creating her paintings, most are oil paint applied with palette knives direct to canvas, no charcoal sketches…  they simply ‘emerge’.

Having been gifted the odd Art Workshop day, Olivia found she couldn’t understand instruction, fatigue would set in, and she would pop off for a nap with the help of the course provider, only to return close to the end of the day in time for the lovely tea and cake on offer!

Olivia is an advocate for hidden disabilities, constantly dealing with her own limitations, she is wholly aware how often others can question, become frustrated and generally not understand just what it takes to try and function in the world after brain trauma.