"Side Skull" Painting

Heather Olsen is a figurative painter based in Salt Lake City, UT. Olsen’s paintings explore the emotional expression of the human experience through nude figure studies painted from life. Due to her classical training, her paintings are rooted in realism with a contemporary style of expressive brushwork. Her work is in both public and private collections, and has been exhibited in galleries throughout the U.S. and Canada including the Springville Museum of Art, Chelsie Nicole Contemporary Gallery, Summer and Grace Gallery, among others. Her work has been featured in collaborations with the Sundance Film Festival, Intermountain Health, and Utah State Legislature. In 2020, Olsen was commissioned to paint the large-scale multi-figure painting to spearhead the campaign “Together We Can Do This” honoring the healthcare heroes of the Covid-19 epidemic. Prints of the painting hang in all Intermountain Healthcare facilities in both Utah and New York, and were gifted to the Utah and New York frontline healthcare workers during the covid outbreak. Her work has gained global recognition as she has won awards such as finalist in the Portrait Society of America, and top four finalist in the worldwide speed painting competitions Art Battle and Art 64. Olsen learned her mastery of figures through intensive studies at the Hein Art Atelier and Bridge Academy of Art before earning her BFA at the University of Utah. Her teachers include Jeff Hein, Sean Diediker, J. Kirk Richards, Jennifer Gennari, Lindsay Kustusch, Denis Sarazhin, Costa Dvorezky, and Jeremy Mann. In addition to her studio work, Olsen also teaches and shares her knowledge through art workshops at the Visual Arts Institute, Workshop SLC, and instructional videos produced by Sentient Academy. By pushing the boundaries of her creative expression, and a commitment to authenticity in her work, Heather Olsen continues to leave a lasting impression on the art world through her emotionally resonant oil paintings.