I have been visiting my son and his wife for a week in Melbourne Beach, Florida. The best part is I get to enjoy my new granddaughter! Their house backs up to a wildlife sanctuary and most evenings we take a walk at sunset to that Indian river side of the peninsula or take a stroll through wildlife sanctuary in their backyard. On our evening walks in the neighborhood I’ve been enjoying seeing a variety of artistic mailboxes. Enjoy!!
After doing the dozen smaller beach dune paintings , I created several larger canvases. I like working on several at the same time because then I can be bolder about making changes and also dealing with sizes and shapes. working larger offers more challenges and larger paintbrushes. Trying to be more spontaneous and have every single brushstroke deliberate and impressionistic was my goal.
Imagine having a little beach on your wall🎨
Last year, I painted a series of smaller fish paintings with a lot of texture and abstract elements. They were so much fun to create and I have some left. They are nice for gifts for fishermen. Most of these are 20 x 10”, 24 x 12” and 24×18”
If interested, email me at lindaolsenart@gmail.com
Last month I started a series of beach landscapes and the paths through the dunes or walk overs to reach the beach. several smaller studies and original Paintings were done as I was also doing the larger canvases. Keeping the energy and impressionistic styling was important to what I was expressing. These are the ones that are 20 x 10“ gallery wraps. .. vertical and horizontal studies.
They retail for 325. but for a limited time they can purchased for 225.
it’s actually a really nice size for smaller locations on a wall and gives a reminder of the beach to a room. Obviously I have been dedicated to this collection for weeks and am pleased to offer these happy paintings. Reach out if you are interested.
A month ago I had an opportunity how to get a hefty discount on a coffee table book from Saal printing if I critiqued their software and also the final printed book. Even though I was recovering from a broken knee I decided to sit at my computer for several days to get this designed. I had wanted to showcase my underwater paintings as a book for my living room table. First I had to organize which paintings I wanted to put in the book and how it was going to lay out. I put them in a folder on my computer ready for uploading to their software. But before I did that, I did thumbnail contact sheets of each painting and taped them onto a layout spreadsheet so I knew what we’re on each page. There was a couple hundred paintings to deal with so doing this made the project easier in the long run. The software was actually very well done.
The final book was 12 x 12″ and about an inch thick with a quarter inch acrylic cover and leather back cover and binding. They did a wonderful job printing and really matched the artwork well. Each page was a glossy thick lay flat presentation. For several hundred dollars you want this to be top notch and it was.
here are some of the pages

Oftentimes when a painting is sold and shipped to it’s new owners homes, I don’t get an opportunity to see how it looks on their wall. Recently I’ve been getting pictures from the art collectors and I wanted to share.
Before my recent accident I had just finished this 60 x 48“ underwater fantasy. Working this large is challenging because there’s so much more physicality in creating it and my studio is rather small…so critiquing and analyzing as I paint is difficult. I use two large easels during the process. It also takes a lot more time.
when I work on something like this it’s rather organic and how things are placed in the scene. First I put in the rocks and the coral. I started adding sea turtle and the various fish. Each fish or coral was chalked in, moved, and imagined before paint was added. Color combinations were considered as I progressed. I wanted the viewers gaze to flow around like the swirling currents.
With the thoughtful placement of various sea life, I am happy with the result, keeping it impressionistic.
The recent commission for Tracey and Bill of the underwater fantasy, is not a new thing for me. I used to dive and remember the wonder of the reefs… the colors and the variety of fish and aquatic life.
One of the commissions I worked on this summer was an underwater scene a couple in Palm Valley. I had to build a canvas from scratch because it was an odd size 60”x 28”. I haven’t stretched for years because I usually buy them pre-stretched it was a lot more work than I expected or remembered.
Tracy and Bill have been so lovely to me over the years and I was happy to create this last commission for them. During the process I took it over to see how it looked with her furniture and then added more teal and little touches a beige.
during Covid this summer and staying home I’ve had a lot of time to explore different ideas in my art. I started getting up before sunrise, scootering to the beach and watching a sunrise with a girlfriend or two. …and sometimes swimming.
The mornings that the water was calm was super magical. To be swimming in the ocean with the sky the same color as the reflection on the top of the water felt like we were floating on clouds. so I’ve been working on the inspiration of trying to create paintings that reflect that experience. I also discovered that our water color in North Florida is not blue but has tones of greens and brown.
I will continue with this collection as soon as I am able. If you or someone you know would like to put a little salt air on their walls, just ask. Thanks so very much.
