Welcome to My Studio

I'm pleased you found me. This site is continuously being re-imagined and is evolving just as my artistic endeavors change. I'm a life-long learner, and painting has been my means of expression since I was a child. Both my parents were artistic, though they never seriously explored their talents professionally. But my mother turned to free-lance humor writing, what was called a gag writer.  She beccamer a full-time homemaker, but carved out time writing for magazines, newspapers, and comedians like Phyllis Diller, the pioneering female comic who became famous in the 1960s. My father was a tool and die maker for General Motors. He taught me drawing and perspective before I even started kindergarten. I was drawing two sides of a house when I was five much to the amazement of my teacher.

I had many wonderful teachers, and one in particular in middle school. Mrs. Schultz was the most encouraging. She accompanied our classes on bus trips to the Chicago Art Institute, which for me was a revelation and continues to be an inspiration. On the trip into Chicago from the suburbs, Mrs. Schultz used flashcards of famous paintings, and we were to guess the titles, the artists, and the eras of their particular artistic styles: Impressionism, Abstract Expressionism, Ressaissance, Neoclassicism, Rococo, Art Nouveau, Art Deco, Hudson River School, Taos Artists, etc.

I began taking art and design seriously while attending college. There were no classes in art at the University of Dubuque at the time I attended, but I worked part time for a commercial sign and outdoor advertising company near the campus. I was a janitor, cutting grass, running errands, doing whatever I could, and working among the most incredibly talented artistis. They gave me spare brushes and paint, taught me portraiture and charicature, lettering, and even sign fabrication. That's where I learned how to be an artist and graphic designer. Frank Hardie Adversiting was the best class I attended during my four years of college. But I thank UD for providing me with a well-rounded and high quality liberal arts education. And it was at UD I met me wife, Linda. She made me grow up and taught me table manners. It wasn't that I was raised by wolves, but I had a lot of freedom as a child.

After college I started freelancing as a sign painter. I painted signs, outdoor posters, showcards. vehicles, and even boats with decorative lettering. I also worked in radio broadcasting. It actually was a great industry that utilized by artistic talent for advertising and media production including television commercials for a local TV station. I prepared advertising pitch presentations for sales people, and one of those projects caught the attention of John Deere, a tractor manufacturer in Dubuque. They were looking for someone with drawing, design and photography skills. I accellerated my career working in this industry, learning printing, graphic design on a grand scale, television, and business communications for which i won several national awards for my work.

But I continued to paint for galleries, commissions, and myself, whatever interested and inspired me.

Here's a new project that an artist like myself would choose to do in the autumn of his career. I made a career of painting local scenes. landmarks, landscapes and what have you. I had good working relationships with frame shops and galleries. So my work hangs in a lot of homes, businesses, public places, and are among some corporate collections. I used to do Christmas cards for Dubuque Bank & Trust of familiar Dubuque scenes including Dubuque's iconic landmarks each featuring a mantle of fresh fallen show. There were new holiday scenes every year offered as boxed sets with envelopes, and the bank made them available to the entire community. Many who acquired the sets framed and hung them in their homes as well as mailed them to friends. I also painted some epic paintings including a couple of pieces featuring Dubuque's famed riverfront. One painting of an historic gathering of Mississippi River boats sold nearly a thousand limited edition copies. My most popular prints were of the signature golf holes belonging to Dubuque's four popular golf courses. They represent some of my most favorite landscapes. The original paintings now hang at Dubuque Golf and Country Club.

So, what's with this Garden Post? Linda gave me a decorative garden post for my birthday, and it featured a Beatles motiff (we love the Beatles). It featured lyrics from "Here Comes the Sun." She asked, "Why couldn't you do something with your paiintings of Dubuque? So I experimented with some of my popular images, and came up with a pretty cool garden post. People have these in their gardents or in front of their houses, in flower beds, and God knows where else. They are simple enough to make, but I decided I didn't what to start a manufacturing business at this age. So I made a few to give to charities and fund raisers to help them raise money. We j\ust got this program off the ground, or, should we say, "In the ground?"           

Here I am with one of his subjects, Daisy, in my studio. This was my first portrait in this series. I decided I would video the entire painting procedure and make it available for fans, friends and aspiring artists. Meanwhile, I texted the link to the completed video to my neighbor as a way to surprise her and her family on Mother's Day. Everyone was in the family car after buying groceries when they received the text, and they watched the whole thing in the parking lot.

I thoroughly enjoy sketching with paint brush. That is I view a scene or compositional element through a grid much like the great painters of generations ago. Grids have been used for centuries to scale small images up to often immense proportions. I have a marvelous tool on my smartphone called Artist's Grid. I import an image from among my photos and it puts a custom grid over it. I then replicate the dimensions of the grid on a canvas. So I start painting without a pencil sketch or any marks on the canvas other than the grid as my guide.

So I had this opportunity to paint a portrait of my neighbor's dog, Daisy. My neighbor sent me a charming photo of the dog (knowing how much I love dogs and Daisy in particular), and I had to do a portrait.

Painting Demonstration Videos

This is Daisy. See her portrait Painting demonstration on YouTube

This is Rolo

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 This is Charlie

My artistic endeavors are navigating an exciting and inspirational road. Many years ago when I was just starting my career, I used to sketch and paint outdoors doing what is called "plein air" among enthusiasts of the art form. My desire is to return to this method of painting especially since I have more time for it and I don't have to worry about making a living. My painting technique, command of materials and several paintings I've already created outdoors have proven I'm "road worthy." Painting outdoors is envigorating. However, it's fraught with perils. Sometimes nothing turns out as intended, but often I am surprised by my results. For the last nearly 30 years, I've had this 800 square foot art studio where everything is at my fingertips and I don't have to continuously setup or teardown every time I want to paint. Painting with logistical considerations has it's own challenges but also opportunities.

So I joined the throng of 60 painters that decended upon my home town sponsored by a great local organization called Bluff Strokes Dubuque, Iowa with the purpose of capturing Dubuque and environs at the height of the fall season. The leaves were just turning colors. Plein air, as I soon discovered, is a large and enthusiastic art movement world wide. No cameras, no working from photos, and working with light that lasts maybe two hours in which you must capture your composition quickly. I've actually worked without a sketch entirely to save time and save the moment. It's so much fun that I've created a portable studio that I can transport on my recumbent tricycle and literally hit the road.

The Rhomberg Avenue Bridge

We have this amazing park in my town (Dubuque, Iowa) that began as a flood mitigation project. For years the eventuality of torrential rains would flood basements and inundate homes in this area which was a creek before it was a storm sewer. City planners asked themselves, "Why not reclaim the land, restore the creek which would be easier to manage?" And so houses were purchased and razed, land terraced and bridges built over the creek. Upsteam, a flood control mechanism handles seasonal runnoff and excessive rains. Along the bank of the creek is a continuation of the Heritage Trail, a hiking and biking trail that connects a larger network of city trails and extends all the way to Dyersville, Iowa. I was impressed with this magnificent bridge structure as it completely redefines the neighborhood of 100 year-old homes, beautiful churches and businesses. It is a civic project to be proud of.

I painted this view of one of the pictureque bridges. An instant landmark. A bicyclist can be seen in the lower right-hand corner. The print measures 28x14 inches on quality canvas, the image is enhanced by hand applied brush strokes. -Gary Olsen

The Rhomberg Avenue Bridge Print 28x14 inches on canvas.

$110 includes shipping

Gary Olsen has produced a video on the creation of a painting commissioned by the Dubuque Rotary Club celebrating its 100th Anniversary and the 15th Anniversary of its commitment to the America's River Project.

The massive original painting was unveiled to the public on Wednesday, October 12th, 2017.

Jerry Enzler With the Rotary Club's enthusiastic support, the idea grew to become one of the most ambitious civic improvement projects in the Rotary Club's history. This early Rotary Club support for the project signaled the beginning of broad community buy-in as funds from several more sources grew to more than $40 million. The project serves as an example of what a community can do when it's truly inspired and its leaders and creative thinkers begin collaborating and working together. America's River Project began as a visionary initiative to improve our city's riverfront which had been largely industrial for generations. Two Rotarians, Wayne Norman and Jerry Enzler, crafted the idea for a revitalization project based on the success of Mystic Seaport, the popular and historic tourist destination in Mystic, Connecticut, and pitched it to the members. Gary Olsen, an artist for nearly 50 years in Dubuque, is well known for his landscapes and cityscapes of Dubuque, Iowa and its surrounding countryside. Gary witnessed the evolution of Dubuque's riverfront that changed Dubuque's skyline forever.

The America's River Project Commemorative Print (on archival paper) approx. 24x42 inches $50 includes shipping   His celebratory painting features how much Dubuque's "front yard" has changed. Limited edition prints of the paintinsigned and numbered by the artist, are available at Creative Touch Gallery on Hillcrest Rd. and Frame of Mind at Plaza 20. Also they are available directly from the artist by clicking on the Order Button below. Funds raised by the sale of these prints will benefit local Rotary Club Humanitarian Grants that are awarded non-profit organizations dedicated to improving the lives of others and making Dubuque a great place to live and raise families.