Barry Olofsson is a Cape Cod artist. His oil, pastel, and charcoal paintings attempt to capture the beauty he sees all around him. He was recently featured as one of "20 Vibrant Artists" in the Cape Cod Art Magazine. He works out of his home studio in Sandwich, Mass. The roots of Barry's art go back to his expressions in soap sculptures that he created in elementary school. His passion for art grew in parallel with his formal education where he achieved a master’s degree in business. He served his country for five years as a Naval Aviator during the Viet Nam era and spent 35 years in the corporate world. He has a son, daughter and five grandchildren. His life experiences have resulted in a sense of optimism that is grounded in a set of principles that are based on respecting others. He attempts to share the beauty he finds in life in the art he creates. Barry's work has received numerous awards and recognition. His work can be found in thousands of collections across the world.
Barry has established himself as a serious member of the art community on Cape Cod after moving here from New Jersey in 2001. Earlier in his career, he was an accomplished wood carver winning numerous awards at local and national shows. His work focused on realistic waterfowl, game birds and songbirds until his passion evolved into portraiture. He received a great sense of accomplishment when capturing the character of his subjects in oils, pastel, and charcoal. His skills in this area resulted in a large number of commissions that included people and pets in each of the mediums he has mastered.
He was recently inspired by the work of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s whimsical dancers that were on display at the MFA in Boston. Bringing back his interest in birds he started to imagine the birds he loved in the whimsical poses of Lautrec’s dancers. As a result, Barry created a series of whimsical bird paintings that brought smiles to the faces of viewers. To provide focus on the whimsical poses of the birds, he started to experiment with setting his subjects in gold to add a feeling of being on a golden pond with a sparkle of life to his paintings.
His attention was soon brought back to his love of the realistic birds he carved earlier in his career as an artist. His latest work captures that sparkle of life in realistic paintings of birds that are painted in the artistic setting of a golden pond.
Barry's latest work will be on display at the Chapman Art Gallery located at 5 Main Street in Cotuit, MA.. His work will be part of a small works show that will start with a reception on November 26th.
You may be interested in the following Artist Profile which was published in the Cape Cod Art Magazine.
