Tree Mural

I just wrapped up another wall mural that turned out pretty awesome. If there is one thing I love it's when I get a chance to paint on a big empty wall. This mural came from an awesome lady that decided that she wanted a big tree in her bathroom. This is not a normal bathroom though. Her house is incredible. It was built to resemble an old farmhouse. The details in this home are incredible. From the natural wood and multiple fireplaces to the clawfoot tubs and bright white mouldings, this house is one of the coolest places I have ever got to paint. OK back to the painting. It took some serious time to paint all of these leaves. There are eight different shades of green to give the piece some color and depth. The trunk is done with an airbrush ( which is one of my favorite art tools to use.)

This is an awesome piece that client added to the piece. It fits in perfectly.

This was another mural that I really enjoyed painting. It is so rewarding to to be able to change a space with a painting.

Tandem Bicycle Painting

I was so excited when I got a call from Mandi at Vintage Revivals to do a painting for her. I was even more excited when she told me what she wanted. I have said this before, but I will say it again. I love when a person trusts me enough to give me an idea and let me do my thing. She told me she wanted a an old vintage style bike that can seat two people. There is no such thing as an old vintage bike with a tank and fenders so I got to design it from scratch. Sent Mandi the rough draft and took it from there.

We decided to do the painting on an 8 by 4 foot piece of veneered plywood. I stained it a blonde stain and started painting.

The contrast with the natural wood and Cobalt Blue color of the bike really worked. I was happy that we decided to cut the piece in to fifths to give it more texture and contrast to the room.

Mandi is crazy talented so her space was amazing as always. The piece ended up fitting in perfectly into her entryway. If you have not checked out Vintage Revivals go get lost in her blog now!!! you can find her at vintagerevivals.blogspot.com

Commissioned mural

This has to be one of my favorite murals I have ever done. It was so fun for the client to be able to customize an entire wall in her home. The first thing I did was had her lay out everything that she wanted to include on her wall. I loved that she chose her kids artwork from elementary school and other miscellaneous items that had meaning to her to fill up her space. This mural spanned from her bedroom to her sitting room upstairs. She lives in an incredible victorian style farmhouse that is authentic from the bright white casings and baseboards to the clawfoot tubs that are in every bathroom. This mural was done with a paintbrush and a sharpie marker. Its incredible what you can create with as little resources as I used.

I ended up buying around twenty frames and mirrors at the DI for around a buck a piece and refinished them to put on the wall. Spraypaint and glaze can easily change an old tattered frame into a high quality frame. This added a ton of dimension to the wall. 

The client chose a few sayings with custom artwork that she wanted included in the wall. They ended up really adding to the final piece.

These silhouettes were a last second addition that i loved adding to the wall. She wanted to incorporate her dogs in some way and I thought this would be a great way to do it. This is her boxer Ozmo.

And her Puggle Dexter.

I decided to fill up the final space on the wall with the first initial of all the kids in the family.

One of the most gratifying things about doing this mural was that the client told me she wakes up every day with an extra hop in her step because the mural puts a smile on her face when she gets out of bed. This is such an awesome way to personilize a mural and I hope I get the chance to do another one like it. ( who am I kidding......... my wife has already told me she wants this done in our home ).

Mint Clothing

Well this is my new project I have been working on for awhile. I don't have the time right now that is needed to get this off the ground, but I am happy with the designs and aesthetic I have come up with so far. I have a huge addiction to t shirts and I have always loved the look of old vintage items so I decided to combine the two to come up with my designs for Mint clothing. Instead of the traditional stiff silkscreen application I have chosen to use an ink based product so the graphic feels like it is part of the shirt. All of my apparel  is printed on a high quality slim fit soft cotton t shirt. Ten percent of all sales of these shirts goes to the A.S.P.C.A. ( The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals ) to help rehabilitate animals that have been abused. All of my pictures were taken by Natalie Bennion at Natalie Photography. Her work can be found at http://bennionlovin.blogspot.com/ She is one of the most creative, down to earth people I know and she takes incredible pictures at super affordable prices. Here are some of the designs that I have created.

My gorgeous wife rockin the Vintage Movie Camera shirt in plum.

Phonograph

Vintage Movie Camera

The Cupcake

High Wheel Bicycle

The Caged Bird

Elvis Spray Paint

I was so excited when I got the call to do this painting. I have been listening to Elvis since I was about eight years old. I used to listen to Frank Sinatra and Elvis in my grandpa Calvins car all growing up. What excited me even more is when they told me that they wanted a spray painted portrait of Elvis and I could use whatever picture I wanted. This is also the first video I had ever done for this type of painting. I get asked all the time how I create these paintings so I decided I would do a video to show the process behind it all. First I ask what colors the client wants or what colors are used on the walls and in the room where the painting is going. In this case they were hanging this in their home in a room with soft colors so I decided to use a tan and brown pallet. Once I selected the photo to use I separated the photo into the darkest colors (black), all the way up to the highlight colors (white). I then draw them out to the size of canvas I am using and cut out the negatice space of the stencil. When I am spraying I always start with the lightest color and build up to black. When I lay the stencil down I put bolts on the edges so the stencil doesnt come up while spraying. This ensures nice clean lines in your painting. It is a fun process to watch because you dont see it come together until the final stencils.

Elvis Portrait speed painting from Jonathan Olson on Vimeo.

This is the finished product. Spraypaint on canvas.

Pet Portraits

Before we had Charlie my wife and I were overly obsessed with our great dane Duke. This painting hangs over My little boy Charlies crib in his room. It is done with acrylic paint on canvas. I love how a piece of art can completely be the focus point of the room.

Charlies room is Dr. Seuss themed, but he absolutely loves Duke so it fits perfectly in his room.

Charlie's room was pretty boring when it was our office. Before he was born my wife and I decided to spruce it up a bit. We love the old craftsman look of houses so we decided to bring that feeling into his room. Our walls were textured so we glued 4x8 panels to the wall to get the smooth look of the wood. Then all we did was cut a 4x8 sheet into 6 inch base molding and 4 inch trim. We used the trim to create the board and batton look on the bottom. To cap it off we put a small shelf on top with crown molding underneath. The built in bookshelves and window seat add a ton of dimension to the room and allowed us to decorate with a ton of our favorite things. We filled the shelves with my Dr. Seuss book collection, old blocks bought off ebay and put in a truffle dish, and my favorite little milk scale I bought at a garage sale for five dollars. For 200 dollars we completely transformed this room.

This is our dog Duke with my favorite little niece Kenzeroni. He is about seven feet tall standing up and the biggest sweetheart you will ever meet.

When a good friend of mine saw that I had done a portrait of Duke she had to get some paintings of her cat Zeppe and her pitbull Kalita. Both paintings were done with acrylic paint on canvas.

This is a speed painting I did for charlie so he can see later on how I painted his Dukie dog.

Untitled from Jonathan Olson on Vimeo.

Commisioned Mural and Canvas

I recently got the chance to do an awesome commisioned mural in an up and coming Marketing companies conference room. They had seen my art and wanted a portrait done in gray tones. I was super excited when they told me they wanted Einstein on their wall. I love when a client gives me the freedom and trust do whatever portrait I want of the person and I can paint it to any size I wanted as well. I of course decided to go as big as I could with the portrait. It went from the floor to the ceiling and ended up being ten feet tall and eight feet wide.

 

I had only planned on doing the mural, but after I finished painting the owners decided that they wanted three paintings to go in their front sitting area. They really wanted portraits of people that were innovative and thought outside the box. They ended up choosing three men that fit that profile perfectly: Andy Warhol, Thomas Edison, and Henry Ford. Their whole office was gray tones with pops of color so they wanted these portraits to be gray tones as well.

Henry Ford





Thomas Edison





Andy Warhol