Biography

George Olson

For several years GEORGE OLSON's art has focused almost exclusively on the grasses and wildflowers of the North American Prairie. This interest in native plants evolved from his earlier landscape drawings and paintings. In addition to his role as an artist, Olson has been involved with prairie restorations in Henry and Lee counties in Illinois as well as other projects through membership in the Nature Conservancy.

Olson's prairie plant studies have been shown widely in the United States and England, including more than 30 one-person exhibitions. A 1990 exhibition at the British Museum (Natural History) was accompanied by a catalog featuring 32 color reproductions. In 1992 his work was selected for the Seventh International Exhibit of Botanical Art, prepared and circulated nationally by the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation in Pittsburgh. Olson's prairie drawings are also included in the London based Sherwood collection which has traveled in the USA, Scotland, Japan, Australia, South Africa, and Brazil. In October 1998 Olson's work was featured in a one-person exhibition at the Chicago Botanic Garden. In November three Chicago subjects were included in a London invitational at the Tryon-Swann Gallery on Cork Street.

Professor Olson has been a faculty member of The College of Wooster since 1963 and has been granted six research leaves since 1972. The first half of a 1992-93 research leave was spent as artist-in-residence at the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis. During this residency he produced a series of plant studies from Missouri and Illinois which were exhibited at the garden's Ridgway Center during November 1992. The second half of the year was spent in London where Olson had a one-person exhibit at the Royal Horticultural Society.

Olson's sixth research leave, granted this past year, was devoted to drawing prairie plants in the Chicago area. Many of the drawings in this exhibition depict specimens from the Chicago Botanic Garden's Dixon Prairie Restoration and from several other prairies in the Chicago area.

Publications:

The Garden, May, 1988, London. Cover Illustration. The Garden is the official publication of the Royal Horticultural Society.

World Magazine, 1988, London. Article and illustrations.

George Olson: Plant Studies from the American Prairie, 1990, London. 32 color reproductions. British Museum (Natural History).

1992 Calendar, College of Wooster, Wooster, Ohio. Twelve color reproductions, one for each month.

Sixth International Exhibition (Exhibition Catalogue), Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, 1992.

Contemporary Botanical Artists (Catalogue of the Sherwood Collection), London, 1996.

Botanical Artists of the World (Exhibition Folder), Tryon-Swann Gallery, London, 1998.