Painting for me is a calming experience allowing me to express myself through creativity and flow. At this stage in my life art has become more therapeutic for me as a means of personal expression through images that have deep personal meaning that I want to share with people of all backgrounds and interests. The resulting paintings are more about the creative process I use incorporating images from life, images from my mobile device and creative interpolation of key elements relying on the properties of oil paint to achieve the visual result I have in mind.  Having rediscovered my “sea legs” as a painter in the past several years has allowed me to rediscover and reconnect to a key part of my soul not only as an artist but as a human being. When you view my art, you are seeing a part of me on the canvas, not only what I have seen, but what I feel.

Artist Biography

As an artist, Oscar Vance's earliest art experiences can be traced to childhood as he won an art contest to celebrate the Bicentennial at his elementary school in the 2nd grade. This interest lasted throughout his high school career as he experimented with different mediums and even graffiti art. Oscar began his formal art education at the University of Pittsburgh receiving his BA in Studio Arts with a major in painting. He later received his M.Ed. in Art from Temple University's Tyler School of Art.

An experienced painter specializing in genre oil paintings based on urban subject matter, in the early 90’s Oscar exhibited in several art galleries in the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh areas. His influences range from Henry Ossawa Tanner, Hughie Lee-Smith, John Singer-Sargent and Edward Hopper. His work has been described by others as having the ability to take complicated subject matter and use painterly methods (large brushstrokes, juxtaposition, wet on wet, etc.) to deconstruct and interpret his subject matter resulting in very fluid looking paintings.

Over the past 20 years, Oscar turned his focus to Graphic Design however he was inspired to return to his painting roots over the past several years by beginning a diverse series of landscapes, people and several still life studies.  Oscar has opened studio space in the newly renovated Firehouse Art Studios located at 5231 Germantown Ave. Philadelphia, PA. He also has recently launched opvart.com, an online gallery and e-commerce site selling his original work and print reproductions.