Artist's Statement

I can fold a fitted bed sheet so it looks like you just pulled it out of the package. When I spread butter, I cover every square centimeter evenly. I cut my fruits and vegetables into perfect geometric units. I've found that when I approach my everyday tasks with the same desire for order as when making art, these chores contribute to my sense of well-being rather than drag me down.

I'm attracted to sushi because it is made and arranged with this same sense of purpose. In addition, food is a very powerful trigger for memories. For me, sushi is a food of celebration. Every time I eat it, I'm reminded of first dates, anniversaries, and the sharing of life's successes with loved ones.

I've studied and appreciate ancient Egyptian art, but never suspected it might influence my paintings. I made dozens of still-life paintings of objects arranged on a tabletop from a single point of view, but was looking for a different way of representing space while still maintaining a realistic style. In Egyptian wall paintings and reliefs, there is no linear perspective or foreshortening of body parts. Each object is shown from its "best" perspective. For example, you can see the whole top of a table as a rectangle, but the objects on it are presented in profile. Feet are viewed from the side, torsos frontally and heads in profile. From this, I realized I could compartmentalize the different elements and show them from their best individual point of view.

I am also influenced by catalog advertisements that distort scale. A tiny person is positioned next to an array of shirts that could fit an elephant by comparison. I began to adjust the scale of the objects to give more impact to the abstract arrangement of the shapes. Much of my creative work involves what I would call "visual poetry." I arrange and rearrange my vocabulary of objects and photographs hoping to find two or three that when combined make that magic spark called art.

– Peter J. O'Halloran

Peter J. O'Halloran

Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1964, Peter J. O’Halloran is a contemporary realist painter whose work reflects a precise yet aesthetic relationship with the everyday. Based in Marietta, Georgia, he has exhibited with Reinike Gallery in Atlanta since 2003.

O’Halloran credits two professors as pivotal influences on his development as an artist: Ron Weaver, a demanding and passionate teacher at the University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh, where O’Halloran received his BFA summa cum laude; and Lennart Anderson, the celebrated figurative painter under whom he studied at Brooklyn College, earning his MFA, also summa cum laude. Their influence instilled in him a lasting respect for technique, structure, and self-discipline—qualities that remain central to his work today.

Determined to continue his artistic growth, O’Halloran moved to New York City, working at Merrill Lynch by day while studying fine art at Brooklyn College. “The diversity of ideas in the museums and galleries left the greatest impact on me,” he recalls, reflecting on his years immersed in the city’s vibrant cultural landscape.

After returning to Wisconsin and marrying, O’Halloran began exhibiting regionally and explored a series of geometric abstractions. Inspired by aerial photographs of Western farmland, these compositions were designed from crop formations shaped by circle-pivot irrigation—arcs and wedges layered over expected rectangles and grids.

When his children were born, O’Halloran adjusted his practice for safety, setting aside oil paint in favor of mixed-media portraiture. Using unconventional materials such as Indian seed beads, melted plastic, painted pinheads, and latch-hook yarn, he created labor-intensive pointillist portraits—each composed of approximately 10,000 individual elements and rendered in a photo-realistic style.

In 1996, O’Halloran and his family relocated to Atlanta when his wife accepted an executive position with The Coca-Cola Company. With his children now grown and his wife retired, he has returned to working primarily in oil on canvas.

His recent paintings are striking examples of high realism—marked by clarity of vision, technical precision, and meticulous attention to the textures and nuances of everyday objects. A sense of visual order and meditative construction remains integral to his current work. Influenced by the formal clarity of Egyptian wall paintings and the spatial distortions of catalog photography,

O’Halloran aims not merely to depict reality but to restructure it. His paintings transform familiar objects—sushi, rocks, candles, household tools—through heightened realism and shifts in scale. As he describes it, he finds “visual poetry” in the arrangement of forms: ordinary items that, when composed just right, produce something quietly extraordinary.

His work is held in both private and corporate collections, including King & Spalding and Rafuse, Hill and Hodges. He has received awards from the Wisconsin Artists Biennial and Brooklyn College, and his paintings continue to evolve within the traditions of high realism—refined, thoughtful, and timeless.