Size 30x40
Black Frame
Hans now resides in Fairfield, Iowa. where he spends many hours exploring the natural beauty of the Midwest. His current interest lies in the "Plein-Air" style of painting, where the artist paints directly from nature, quickly trying to capture the rapidly changing light and shadows of the landscape.
After years spent out West painting, I decided to do something I had never considered since graduating from high school 23 years earlier. I felt a calling to return to the Midwest and began painting the motifs that inspired me in my youth. "It took almost a year to appreciate the natural beauty of this area after coming from the island of Maui. Now I look forward to the change of seasons with great anticipation. The simple landscape with it's huge sky and rolling prairies inspires me now."
Hans Eric Olson’s vivid paintings evoke wonderful memories of times gone by, when island life was slower and the aloha spirit was more abundant. No where can this more leisurely pace and loving energy be found than in Hana, often called “The Last Hawaiian Place.” The Hana coast is an intensely personal experience, a sensory overload of beauty that,as artistic inspiration, can sometimes be so overwhelming that even the muses grow silent. But for Olson, the beautiful landscape evokes his creativity. “Although all of Maui provides me with inspiration,” says the artist, “I fell in love with Hana the first time I visited that beautiful rural area. The simple, small-town atmosphere and friendly people took me back to my childhood in Iowa, where I grew up.”