{"id":4814,"date":"2017-12-27T07:55:37","date_gmt":"2017-12-27T12:55:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=4814"},"modified":"2017-12-27T08:00:15","modified_gmt":"2017-12-27T13:00:15","slug":"rose-olson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2017\/12\/27\/rose-olson\/","title":{"rendered":"Rose Olson\u2019s Luminous Abstractions: \u2018They Want Open Air, Open Light, Open Windows\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rose Olson begins her luminous abstract paintings by finding the right wood and sanding it and sanding it smooth. \u201cIt has to glow, the grain has to glow at the start,\u201d she says. Then she paints directly on the wood veneer\u2014no gesso or primer\u2014with patterns of horizontal rectangles and bars applied in thin, glossy, translucent layers, one after the other, up to 14 coats, so that that they capture the light. Think jewels or stained glass or sunrises.<\/p>\n

Her current exhibition, \u201cBright, Cool and Hot,\u201d continues at Boston\u2019s Kingston Gallery<\/a> through Dec. 30. The retired art teacher lives in Beverly and grew up in Boston\u2019s South End, where she\u2019s long kept a studio though illness of late has kept her out of the big city. When she was regularly riding the train in from the North Shore, she says, \u201cAll the time I\u2019m watching the colors, the sun, the light, the water. It all goes into my brain.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Rose<\/a>
Rose Olson, \u201cOrator,\u201d 30\u201d x 30\u201d acrylic on wood. (Courtesy of the artist)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve painted since I was born. I had a red and blue pencil. It was all I had,\u201d Olson says. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to make do with whatever you\u2019ve got.\u201d<\/p>\n

Olson\u2019s flat, hard-edged, geometric compositions can bring to mind the midcentury abstractions of Mark Rothko<\/a> or John McLaughlin<\/a>. Though hers are more crisp than Rothko\u2019s airy glowing TV clouds and shimmer more than McLaughlin\u2019s opaquely painted Zen graphics.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a total change from the abstract expressionism work I was doing before,\u201d she says. Before 2000 or so, \u201cI was doing large paintings on canvas, they were enormous.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Rose<\/a>
Rose Olson, \u201cColor in the Mist,\u201d 12\u201d x 12\u201d acrylic on wood. (Courtesy of the artist)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Then, she says, \u201cI got a hold of a piece of wood. I needed a change. And it was a beautiful wood. I tried painting a horizontal line and another horizontal line. I tried painting a diagonal and I didn\u2019t like it at all. I did the next one and I thought, \u2018Why do I have to paint it white [with primer] and cover up the beautiful wood?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no grain that I\u2019ve ever seen that matches another grain that I\u2019ve ever seen,\u201dOlson says. \u201cThey\u2019re as unique as the human fingerprint.\u201d<\/p>\n

She says, \u201cI started liking everything where the grain was obvious.\u201d<\/p>\n

Olson\u2019s thin glazes of color sit up on the wood and glisten, rather than being absorbed as would likely happen on canvas. They\u2019re about light passing through the color and bouncing back imbued with harmonies of reds and oranges and yellows and lilacs and overcast blues. The effect is sensitive to changing atmospheres. Olson says, \u201cThey want open air, open light, open windows.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Rose<\/a>
Rose Olson, \u201cNiagara,\u201d 30\u201d x 30\u201d acrylic on wood. (Courtesy of the artist)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Rose<\/a>
Rose Olson, \u201cFloating,\u201d 45\u201d x 30\u201d acrylic on wood. (Courtesy of the artist)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Help us keep producing our great coverage of local arts by contributing to Wonderland’s Launch Fundraiser<\/a>. And sign up for our free, weekly newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rose Olson begins her luminous abstract paintings by finding the right wood and sanding it and sanding it smooth. \u201cIt has to glow, the grain has to glow at the start,\u201d she says. Then she paints directly on the wood veneer\u2014no gesso or primer\u2014with patterns of horizontal rectangles and bars applied in thin, glossy, translucent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4574,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100],"tags":[58,37,186],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4814"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4814"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4814\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4819,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4814\/revisions\/4819"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}