Painting

Bengt Olson and his father Allan used to be down in Bohuslän and paint during the summers, then often in the Lysekils area. Bengt Olson tells him that he arrived in Lilla Kornö only a few weeks after the end of the war in 1945. The family rented one of the houses in the port. At the time, it still operated iland mines, life jackets and other wreckage from Skagerrak. It was dramatic to experience. The family spent a nice summer on Lilla Kornö. Initially, the islanders were awaiting, but the family was accepted retrospectively. Soon Allan Olsson sat on the “lying bench” together with the others. For the Bengt heater boy, Bohusländer was somewhat very exotic. Allan Olson was born in Kristinehamn. The father was a carpenter. He attended drawing lessons at evening school under the direction of Isac Cullberg, an academic teacher. However, he was unable to search for higher art studies, his life took a different course. The comrade Folke Andréasson, however, completed the artist’s course. He made a living as an iron merchant assistant. However, he wanted to be happy, but could not, to support himself on the painting and never wanted to call himself an artist, it would have been too presumptuous. In the small apartment in Kristinehamn, however, a easel was always exhibited. He came to paint throughout his life. The motif circle was landscape, still lifes and portrait, always imagining. The paintings were always very elaborate. Most of what he produced he fired up. He was his own most stringent critic. Remains of his production are at most a few percent. As a child, Bengt Olson often accompanied his father down to Gothenburg to greet friends Ivan Ivarson and Ragnar Sandberg. Allan Olson had a very strong art interest and always talked about art. He became a bitter and awkward man, according to Bengt Olson, over the years. When he moved to Gothenburg in 1955, he came closer to the artistic circles. He then began a hiring as a caretaker at Valand’s art school in Gothenburg, an irony in the context. Ideally, he had wanted to come to Valand as early as the 1920s. He came to be the one who “went the longest at Valand.” He said he had worn out four teachers alone. He had many friends among the students and Bengt Olson has left letters from several artists who have received criticism from Allan Olson over the years. Allan Olson painted a lot with his son Bengt. He was often a stern critic of his painting. See UM027493. Bengt Olson says he “has had three important teachers