Claudia Olivos presents her portfolio of dreamlike paintings. Enjoy, and be sure to visit her website for more about this talented artist.
![Dream with Angels and Horses](https://www.artsyshark.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Claudia-Olivos-Dream-With-Angels-and-Horses.jpg)
“Dream With Angels and Horses” oil on canvas, 16″ x 20″
I am a painter from Chile via Washington D.C., where I was born to Chilean parents. I was raised in Chile but spent vacations in Mexico and New York City where my father lived as a UN diplomat and a painter.
![Shaman and You](https://www.artsyshark.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/shaman-and-you.jpg)
“Shaman and You” oil on canvas, 24″ x 20″
When I was 12, my mother remarried and we returned to the Washington DC area where I currently reside with my fellow artist and life partner, the Mexican painter Sergio Olivos and our son Julian, an aspiring writer.
![Hecate](https://www.artsyshark.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Hecate.jpg)
“Hecate” oil on canvas, 12″ x 12″
I see my work as an exploration of the relationship between physical reality and imagination, or what I call ‘soulstate’: the essence within each individual and the possibilities beyond what the eye can see and what our minds can understand.
![Machis](https://www.artsyshark.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Machis-Female-Shamans-24x24-in.jpg)
“Machis (Mapuche Shamans)” oil on canvas, 20″ x 24″
It is this, the experience of being that interests me, that which is unseen/the subconscious; the subtle contrasts of our lives experiences as we live day to day immersed in a world that without wonderment can become desolate and gray. I choose lines and color and visual storytelling to tap into the labyrinth of the mind, the genesis of the eternal.
![Misteros de una Luna Coqueta](https://www.artsyshark.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Misterios-de-una-Luna-Coqueta.-36x48.-Oil-On-Canvas.-2006_.jpg)
“Misteros de una Luna Coqueta” (Mysteries of a coquettish moon), oil on canvas, 36″ x 48″
The images come intuitively as I work, they discover me as much as I dis-cover them; as such, I have always related to the Surrealist’s automatism, what is now being called “intuitive painting”.
![Nidus](https://www.artsyshark.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Nidus.jpg)
“Nidus” oil on canvas, 12″ x 36″
I don’t plan my paintings in preliminary sketches, I just begin to paint and allow for whatever needs to happen to flow through. It is a long process as sometimes I end up with a totally different image than what I started with, it is a total collaboration between myself the painter and myself connected to “All that Is” as the work itself manifests before my eyes even as I work.
![Esperanza](https://www.artsyshark.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Esperanza.jpg)
“Esperanza” oil on canvas, 48″ x 36″
I had always worked primarily with oils, but after the market crash of 2007, I not only lost the four galleries that represented me, I also experienced a huge downturn in sales which led me to experiment with smaller sizes and other media. Later, I was diagnosed with heavy metal toxicity due to working with dry oil pigments, and I was forced to stop working with oils all together for a period of one year.
![El Otoño](https://www.artsyshark.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/El-Otoño-Oil-On-Canvas-24x-48-private-collection.jpg)
“El Otoño” oil on canvas, 24″ x 48″, private collection
I immersed myself into acrylics and mixed media, and although I enjoyed it for a couple of years, the work I produced with acrylics does not *feel* the same for me as my oil pieces. There is an *ease* for me when I work with oils, a medium that I feel “chose me”… as I began to paint with it when I found some tubes inside of one of my father’s cigar boxes after he passed away when I was in my late teens. I didn’t even know how to use it and mixed it with olive oil in the beginning!
![Indissoluble Unions](https://www.artsyshark.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Indisoluable-Unions-Oil-On-Canvas.-2004.-36x48.jpg)
“Indissoluble Unions” oil on canvas, 36″ x 48″
My current work has led me to combine my love of painting the figure with my passion for abstract expressionism and color.
![Tlazolteotl](https://www.artsyshark.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Tlazolteotl.jpg)
“Tlazolteotl” mixed media on board, 12″ x 16″
In the fusion of figuration and abstraction I have found the tools that allow me to create a magical realist realm filled with personal symbols; these symbols interact one with another creating a fantastic yet tangible world that represents all that surrounds me, how I see and experience the world in the midst of hardships and life challenges.
![The Blessing](https://www.artsyshark.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/the-Blessing.jpg)
“The Blessing” oil on canvas, 12″ x 12″
I made my first drawing before I could walk… Art is my passion, it is who I am. To draw and paint is as much part of my existence as eating or breathing, it always has been. ~Claudia Olivos
Claudia Olivos invites you to follow her on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
Chagall revisited ????
Love your kind heart! Thank you for sharing
I have been following this blog for years now and am so pleased to see Claudia featured.