We recently connected with Robin Olsen and have shared our conversation below.

Robin, appreciate you joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

Being an artist was always in me from the time I painted a large mural out of mud on our freshly stuccoed house at the age of 5. While my early work was not well received by my parents, they did always encourage me and provided plenty of materials for more acceptable expression later.

I began studying in a Commercial Art program, and while I enjoyed learning design and drawing fundamentals, I found the pre-computer graphic design work too tedious and headed into a different career.

Some years later, I felt the urge to learn how to paint. I stumbled across the book Life, Paint, and Passion by Michelle Cassou and Stuart Cubley. It was all about free expression painting without any concern for the final product. For a year I painted daily using my kids’ cheap paint and paper and expressing anything that flickered through my head. I loved it, but after a year, I wanted to learn how to “really paint.”

I began studying traditional painting at colleges and art centers. I enjoyed learning new skills and representational painting, but I kept feeling the lack of freedom and expressiveness I felt with the free expression painting. I couldn’t figure out how to bridge the two.

It took about 10 years before I found a workshop on Expressive Abstract Painting taught by Steven Aimone. Finally I was able to combine the design principles I needed to produce a satisfying painting with the freedom of expression I craved. That gave me the path I’ve been on ever since as I continue to practice and study abstract painting.

Robin, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am an abstract painter who creates work that expresses the feeling of breaking free and being fully alive. My art, like my life, is about finding an equilibrium between freedom and order, chaos and calm. I live in Portland, Oregon and enjoy all the energy a vibrant city provides, yet I also live surrounded by fern forests and need the quiet of solitary walks in nature. My work oscillates between being full of dynamic marks and brushstrokes and areas of soothing calm. Sometimes one dominates, sometimes the other.

Inspired by those moments in daily life when a shift takes place, when a sudden awareness or awakening occurs, I seek those experiences throughout my day as a starting point for my work. It might be seeing a calm expanse of sky in a tangle of trees, or an intricate pattern of spots remaining on the pavement after a rain, the lift of joy when a favorite song plays, or even that certain shade of blue on a shopper’s shirt as they stand in front of me in line at Costco. It’s these moments of aliveness that I seek to capture in my work, moments when we are pulled away from the seduction of technology to take notice of the quiet wonders of the natural world.

I began studying art in college but decided to follow a more stable career and earned a PhD in English and taught at University of California, Davis for years. I was continually drawn back to art, though, and took numerous classes and workshops across the country, working with many acclaimed artists. I now combine my love of teaching with art and have taught art to all ages from children to adults.

My work has won awards in international competitions, including the top abstract award in the Bold Brush competition. It appears in juried shows, books, and magazines as well as in international private and public collections, including the Mayo Clinic and American River College.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

There’s often a misconception that abstract painting is easy. That’s exactly what I thought before I tried it. I wanted to paint like deKoonig with bold, free brushstrokes. It looked like it would be nothing but joy to paint that way. But everything I produced was a muddled mess. I was stunned when I read his biography to learn that “Woman I” took him 3 years to paint!

Representational painting requires learning lots of skills, and I admire those who do it well. But for me, abstract painting is much harder. It requires stepping off a cliff every time you approach the canvas. Since you have no object for an end goal in mind, you have to rely solely on your inner guidance to point the way. It takes practice and patience and the willingness to throw away a lot of bad paintings along the way.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

When I began painting, there were very few good abstract painting classes available. I think some free expression painting is valuable to loosen up and find the joy in painting. But to really move forward, classes that combine design principles along with expressive painting are really valuable. Nicholas Wilton’s online Creative Visionary Program is excellent for combining the two.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.robinolsenart.com
• Instagram: @robinolsenart