When Oliver was 14 years old, he became the youngest person in Australia to receive a Seeing Eye Dog, Sadie – courtesy of Vision Australia.
Oliver was diagnosed with the eye condition Peters Anomaly (clouding of the cornea) at just nine days old. He only has vision in his left eye as lost vision in right eye from glaucoma when he was younger. Today Ollie can see between 5% and 1% and has vision up to about one metre in distance and uses voice-skills on his smart devices to access information.
Last year Oliver toured India as a batter with the Australian squad at the 2022 T20 Blind Cricket World Cup. A keen athlete, he is also the national junior champion for blind tennis and represented Australia in Bahrain, in goalball in the Australian Storm’s team quest for the 2032 Summer Paralympics in Brisbane. No wonder he is often found in the gym!
Oliver’s last seen most memorable image is of a family trip to the Grand Canyon. At the time, he recalls he was fast losing his vision and his parents had been keen for him to experience the adventure and beauty of America. He remembered the different colours of the Grand Canyon from the various viewing platforms and the distinctive orange tinge. This is what artist Gary Myers has captured in the painting.
Experience the immersive artwork soundscape:
Artist
Gary Myers
Gary Myer’s art is immediately identifiable in Australia, with a deep connection to the outback landscape and a passion for the country’s history. Having held over 45 solo exhibitions – the first at Brisbane’s Dunwell Gallery, Rowe’s Arcade Brisbane in 1971, Gary’s artworks are highly sought after by collectors in Australia and overseas. His engaging interpretation of the Australian landscape has led to overseas exhibitions in Brighton, England and in Shanghai, China.
His style is unique, abandoning the traditional norms of landscape painting.
Currently he is represented in six galleries across the eastern States including Tasmania, and exhibits on a regular basis with Kevin Hill, as a top ten Australian Artist. He is an exhibitor and visiting tutor at the Sydney Art School and tutors for the Combined Art Societies of Sydney as well as from his own studio.
Composer
Paul Jarman
Paul Jarman is a widely acclaimed Australian composer, performer, musical director, conductor and educator. Paul has written more than 170 commissioned choral works and has contributed another 100 school and town anthems.
As a cultural ambassador he has performed extensively throughout Australia, Europe, Asia, North America and the Pacific in more than 40 countries with theatre productions, dance ensembles, Aboriginal-Anglo Celtic performance groups, choirs and orchestras.
Paul has performed on many Australian feature films and television series and composed the music to award winning adventure documentaries by renowned cinematographer Mike Dillon, including ‘Ocean to Sky’, a film to honour the 100th Anniversary of the birth of Sir Edmund Hillary in 2019.
Paul specialises in writing music about inspiring people and events and previous subjects have including Jessica Watson, Terry Fox, Helen Keller, Ernest Shackleton, Aung San Suu Kyi, Malala Yousafzai, Frank Hurley, among many others. In 2010, his piece for the 40th Anniversary of the death of Martin Luther King Jnr was performed for President Barack Obama in the White House, and he was one of only 7 composers commissioned to write a piece for the 400th Anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare in 2016.
Paul has composed music for some of Australia’s major events including the Centenary of Federations, the Year of the Outback, The Olympic Arts Festival, The Rugby World Cup Opening Ceremony, United Nations Year of the Mountain, The Queensland 150th and the Australia Day Spectacular.
