Olympia Reyes Video interview at bottom of page

At first glance Olympia seems quiet and somewhat shy. On getting to know her you realize that her quietness is her humbleness and her shyness is just her inner peace that is calm and serene. Olympia comes from a family of artists. She has been the topic of many news articles in the local press for nearly 40 years. Her father drew since he was a child, it was his favorite pastime. He had a different way of painting. Some would say he was a naïve painter, his pictures being colorful, natural and simple.

Since Olympia was able to grasp a pencil she would draw, she used to lie on the floor scribbling and it was very soon after that her pictures began to take form.

Nowadays Olympia’s standard is very high, especially taking into account the fact that she has been self-taught. The only help she has received was by Sister Presentation who took her to A-level standard for exams. It is through her natural ability rather than through learned techniques that she paints. She paints what she feels; it is all in her imagination, the evolution of her life. If she paints any realistic paintings she does it out of doors surrounded by nature.

Olympia holds regular private classes, she has been teaching art for over 36 years. She started at the Christian Brothers School and later taught at the Command Education Centre and at the Technical College. For over 20 years Olympia produced many designs for Gibraltar Stamps winning an award in 1992. Her design was voted as the 6th best stamp design of the month, by readers of Germany’s leading stamp magazine ‘Briefmarken Welt’ a magazine that in 1992 had a circulation of 100,000 copies approximately.

During the years 1975 to 1990 Olympia was totally dedicated to her paintings, working eight to ten hours a day alone at her home. During this period she held twelve very successful one man exhibitions. Over the last two years she has been taking a more spiritual approach to her painting; clearing her mind through meditation and painting with her feelings, she aims to draw what she has learnt about life. The suffering in her life has greatly inspired her; she expresses her positive and negative feelings through her art.

Olympia is very diverse in her work; she paints in oils, pastels, acrylics and water colours as well as Chinese-style paintings; silk, glass and ceramics painting. She is a keen potter, making anything from vases to clay models to fridge magnets. Has taught herself to sew and crochet, and also makes her own jewelry and soap. As well as all this she has found the time to teach herself graphic design on the computer, meaning she can now paint digitally!

Food for thought by Olympia; “Gibraltar is a very special place; it seems to be the only place on the face of the planet where people from different countries, religions and cultures live together in total harmony.”

As a Gibraltarian artist she wants to spread to the world, through her work, the love, peace and joy that she feels.

Olympia Reyes Interview