June Olson (Seattle)

Sex-o-lette
oil on canvas
5” x 7”
ready to hang

June Olson grew up along the California coast between the San Francisco Bay Area and the Monterey Peninsula. She spent her formative years in Santa Cruz County and was influenced by the surfing and skateboarding culture there.
She received an A.A. (Studio Art ) at Monterey Peninsula College and a B.F.A. (Painting ) from the University of California at Santa Cruz, where she won the Porter College Alumni Award for the Advancement of Art on campus at UCSC. Currently, she resides in the Pacific Northwest with her family.
As a child, she was influenced artistically by her Japanese mother who painted traditional sumi-e and her Swedish American father, who painted with watercolor.
June can remember her father methodically taping sheets of Arches watercolor paper onto a wooden board, as he prepared to paint. She recalls her mother pressing rich black sumi ink sticks back and forth, unleashing the mysterious depth of color, onto her ink stone. Consequently, June was drawing before she could even write words, and was painting with oils, by the age of nine.
June works primarily in oil on canvas or linen. She also enjoys printmaking and drawing. Strong color has always and continues to be present in June Olson’s work.