Vivian Olsen - Artist for March

 Setting Her Course

'Summer Deer'   Watercolor

       


Vivian Olsen was destined to become a wildlife artist. Her love of animals began when she was young and spent her free time exploring the California countryside where she lived.  Animals became her playmates. She felt an emotional attachment to the animals her family owned and she developed a rapport with the wildlife she observed in the surrounding hills and marshes. Being an artist was always a major part of her life and throughout her school years she was recognized for her special artistic talent.

'Sandhill Cranes'     Oil   

       Her life’s interest in drawing and painting wildlife was established during her early adult life when she worked as an assistant to a research biologist in the back country of South Dakota, Idaho, New Mexico, and Old Mexico, where she helped to observe, capture, and tag ducks and cranes in their marsh habitats. During those years Vivian did paintings and illustrations of wildlife for publications printed by the Wildlife Research Center at the University of Idaho and the Fish and Wildlife Department of South Dakota. 

She also raised several Sandhill Cranes for research purposes - and three lovely daughters.