I am excited to share that my 18x24 oil painting, Cold Inside, was selected for this year’s Red Dot exhibition at the Contemporary at Blue Star. Red Dot is their signature annual fundraiser, bringing together work from about 100 different artists to support the breadth of the Contemporary’s programs throughout the year. It is always an incredible gathering for our local art community, and I am honored to have a piece on the wall for it.
Cold Inside is a bit of a rare piece for me right now. It is a figurative oil painting, a direction I have been quiet about in the background but am looking forward to diving into much further when I can. It is marked “Olasmo”, since I did it at a time where I treated the work as a separate artist.
Cold Inside, 18×24 inches, Oil on Canvas, 2023 (marked Olasmo)
The origin of the painting comes right out of downtown San Antonio. I took this reference image of my daughter in front of a closed-down souvenir shop across from the Alamo. It gets pretty hot here in San Antonio, so I guess it makes sense to let people know it is cool in your shop to draw them in. I have never really been into abstract paintings, but I found the window to have that feel and I enjoyed painting it.
The contrast between the graphic, abstract window graphics and the figure created a balance I really enjoyed exploring on canvas. As I continue to bring my oil work into the main fold of my studio practice, pieces like Cold Inside mark an exciting direction I plan to explore more deeply.
If you are in San Antonio, the Red Dot opening is next week at the Contemporary at Blue Star. They open with a private event on November 13, 2026 and tickets can be found here.
