You may know Greg Olsen for some his most popular works, such as “O Jerusalem,” “Worlds Without End,” and “The Nativity.”
At 65, Greg’s creative journey is not over yet—in fact, the best may be yet to come. Why? Because he is retiring from the business side of painting. For years, working with his family and various distributors to market and sell his art has been a necessary and exhausting endeavor. But now he is handing all of the business side of things over to Deseret Book by selling the company the rights to all of his existing and future artwork.
“It’s been a great thing for me,” he said. “The business side of what I do, it just, it takes up a lot of time—more than you would think.”
With more free time and freedom to think about things other than business, Olsen has been able to more fully enjoy time with his family. He still plans to create and hopes to spend the extra time more thoroughly researching his subjects so he can bring them to life as accurately as possible.
He also hopes to pursue projects that he simply didn’t have the time or mental capacity for before. With this new deal, Olsen will be producing at least one new original piece of art every year for Deseret Book, although there’s no telling just how many he may end up painting now.
Deseret Book’s art director, Dallan Wright, says, “I think we’re going to see some amazing originals that come in this next stage of Greg’s career. I really do think what [this deal] means is that there are going to be originals that come out that Greg wouldn’t have created, because there’s not that level of daily stress. … I think there’s going to be some great work coming.”
To learn more about Olsen’s story as an artist and how his deal with Deseret Book was created, visit Deseret News.
