Ole Olofson

Ole Olofson is a Swedish-American painter living and working between Los Angeles, California, Maui, Hawaii and Helsingborg, Sweden.  Born in Wisconsin in 1954, he returned to Europe when he was two years old.

A dreamy and artistic child, Olofson had always felt connected to other realms, inspired by nature, the elements, the cosmos, and he heard voices of inspiration – long before he could put a name to it.  He knew he would always be a painter, but his restless, creative, and nomadic nature led him on a romantic pursuit of travel and creating the many inventions he had envisioned.

By the end of his twenties, he had fulfilled all he had set out to do and by age twenty-nine, his calling couldn’t be ignored any longer.

In the early 80s, Olofson found himself in the New York art scene of Basquiat and Warhol, but deep down he knew that complete solitude was the only way he could seriously paint.  Fortuitously, he was offered a 500-year-old farmhouse, Valle Alta which was isolated high up above the mountain village of Asso, by Lake Como in Italy.  He threw out all he knew and began anew.

Over the next three years, he would live and breathe painting, trading his work for rent and food.  Completely self-taught, Olofson discovered that all his mistakes were lessons; and found the language needed to express his vision.  It was then he developed the technique which he has used ever since.

He typically works on several canvases simultaneously, building layer upon layer.  He scrapes, sands, uses water and wet abrasives and re-layers; structuring with paints, pigments, clear pastes, and/or a clear varnish and continues this process until the piece is finished.

Olofson’s abstract images of layered luminescence speak the language of pigment, evoking other realms of an almost psychedelic journey.  What is concealed within the layers underneath is as relevant as the top, visible layer.  All the layers transmit the unseen energy of the journey Olofson took to get there.

To sit with one of his paintings is healing.