"I've always kept a sketchbook alive and always quietly done my thing,"Olsen says."I was shy and nervous about it,I guess. I knew that anything that I did would come under scrutiny which made me feel quite vulnerable and insecure. All those voices from childhood,saying,'Is she up to it?'and'Does she have the touch of her parents?'."
Olsen will debutPollinationon March 4 at her brother Tim's Sydney gallery,comprising 17 large scale works that take inspiration from the artist’s observations of nature,and its regenerative power.
"You know the beauty of getting older is that I don't mind what people think so much anymore,"she says from her office in Dinosaur Design's Redfern studios."There are people who are going to love it and there are people who are going to hate it,but I don't mind because I'm just drawn to painting,for no other reason than I love it. It's a passion and a life force."
Olsen's softer,more delicate aesthetics contrast with her father's overarching interest in landscapes,Lake Eyre being a recurring subject,experimental mark-making and intense bursts of colour.
"I think I've got a certain sensibility from my mother,"Olsen says."My mother[Valerie] was a very delicate painter. She used to do incredible studies of nature's organisms and the insides of flowers in a very beautiful abstract way. She had a beautiful sensitive touch."