Island artist Harald Olson’s retrospective on tap

Artist Harald Olson will be the subject of a celebration and retrospective on Saturday, December 9 at the studio of fellow-artist and patron David Rankin, 126 South Midway Road.

The event runs from 7 to 9 p.m. and will feature a number of Mr. Olson’s most recent abstract paintings.

Mr. Olson spent his early years in Huntington, West Virginia. Orphaned at 13, he enrolled at Fork Union Military Academy in Charlotte, North Carolina and went on to study at Marshall College in Huntington.

But financial hardship prevented him from completing his studies, and after spending his savings, he moved to Alaska to work in logging camps where he would paint in his free time.

In 2003, Mr. Olson established himself on Shelter Island where he has since honed his art practice and has exhibited regularly in local galleries and festivals.

Mr. Olson was the subject of “Shelter Island: Art+Friendship+Discovery,” a 2014 documentary by Michael Canzoniero which tells the story of the artist’s friendship with fellow-Islander Jimmy Olinkiewicz and how he went from selling his paintings on the side of the road to landing a major exhibit at a Manhattan art gallery.