Nancy Andruk Olson focuses on our human relation to nature while using improvisational painting techniques coupled with a high chroma palette. The high chroma signifies an imagined landscape that describes both the practice of painting itself and the experience of being in a landscape. Her work uses nature as a starting point to explore how paint can interpret our experience with the land and the experiences we have on the land. Natural objects are also used as a metaphor for human connection and a description of the feelings that arise as a result of human interactions. 

 

Andruk Olson has been a lifetime painter. She started painting as a child with her mother, who is an art teacher, and never really stopped. Raised in Los Angeles, she attended Art Center College of Design as a high school student. Andruk Olson has a BFA in painting from BYU, where she spent most of her time working with Bruce Hixson Smith. Andruk Olson also has a Post- Baccalaureate certificate from The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Her painting approach is direct, using a lot of impressionist techniques.  The improvisation, the interaction of the paint, the interplay of the materials and the intensity of the color are part of the language for her. Andruk Olson makes a lot of her own paint to ensure the intensity of the pigment is as high as possible.  Other artists who focus on color to capture memories such as Pierre Bonnard, Wolf Kahn, Inka Essenhigh and John McCallister are a major source of inspiration for her. She recently completed the A-I-R Residency at the Bountiful Davis Art Center.