About the Artist
Olivia Tew is a contemporary expressionist painter working primarily in oil. Her practice spans figure studies, floral still lifes, and landscapes—all united by bold colour, gestural mark-making, and heavy impasto surfaces that give form weight and permanence.
Her figure work captures moments of profound introspection—the universal experience of sitting with difficulty, of weathering change, of the body as vessel for emotional experience. The gestural brushwork refuses prettiness or idealisation; each stroke is visible, urgent, yet the cumulative effect is deeply tender.
Her floral still lifes are maximalist celebrations of colour and abundance. Working with saturated grounds—coral reds, golden ochres—she creates paintings that demand attention, project outward, and perform their beauty with confidence.
The Practice
Her landscape works, including the SHIFTING series, present terrain in perpetual transformation. The impasto application is extraordinary in its physicality—paint applied in thick, directional strokes that mimic geological strata, creating surfaces that function almost as relief sculpture.
Each painting asks us to witness without intruding. The work explores emergence and transformation—the universal experience of becoming.
Artistic Connections
Lucian Freud, Frank Auerbach, Jenny Saville, Leon Kossoff, Emil Nolde, Joan Eardley
Studio & Process
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