Nathan Oliveira - Windhover Contemplative Center

Windhover Contemplative Center

During the 1990s Oliveira worked on a series of paintings of catenary curves based on observation of the flight of birds, including kestrels that had hovered outside the windows of his studio in the Stanford Hills. This series was dubbed the "Windhover" series by Oliveira's friend, poet Desmond Egan, who detected parallels between the paintings and the 1877 Gerard Manley Hopkins poem "The Windhover."

In June of 2013 Stanford University is scheduled to break ground for the "Windhover Contemplative Center," a 4,000 square foot one story building that will house four paintings from Oliveira's Windhover series. The center, which is intended to provide Stanford faculty, staff and students with a place to reflect and meditate, was envisioned by Oliveira and his wife Ramona prior to their deaths.