Gallery Artists: ROSE OLSON

You could call me a Minimalist because my work is reductive, but I am also a dedicated colorist. Both of these elements are inseparable. I paint veils of color on wood. The grain of each panel is carefully considered before I begin, applying the many transparent layers of different hues intuitively until the final effect is achieved.

Formalist structure holds everything in place but not rigidly. The hard mathematical banding creates a tension with the soft brush strokes and natural wood. It also offers me an opportunity to make the painting come alive, in a sense, because I mix and layer paint in such a way that the colors often change, as the viewer moves, or the light shifts. I am conscious of the interplay between the suggested and the material. Iridescence and luminosity contribute to how my work holds the space. I want my colors to be so complex that they appear to hover over the surface, drawing the viewer in for closer inspection.

These paintings reflect my passion for color and its interaction with the beauty of natural elements. I want the combination of these new liquid hues and the grain of the wood, to create something as unique as a thumbprint.

Rose Olson is a painter with a studio in Boston’s South-End. Exhibits this past year include: OK Harris, NY; NYU Galleries NY; Danforth Museum Framingham; McCoy Gallery, N. Andover; Higgins Art Gallery, West Barnstable; Gallery XIV, Boston with solo exhibits at Montserrat College of Art, Beverly, where she is a professor, at Kingston Gallery, Boston and most recently at Susan Maasch Fine Art, Portland, ME, which represent her. Her work was selected for inclusion in this year’s Silent Art Auction of the MFA’s Summer Party. For more information, please visit www.roseolson.com

Title: New Orange 2008
Medium: acrylic on Baltic birch veneer
Size: 42"x30"x2"

Title: Ju Ju Summer 4 G 2009
Medium: acrylic on Baltic birch veneer
Size: 12"x12"x"3

Exhibit: Just Color No Curves 10/2008, Kingston Gallery Installation

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