Marine painter

From an interview in early 1960-ies;

"Sea captain Frans B. Olsson comes from an old and extraordinary  fit sea faring family with Brantevik as their home. Bare fifteen years old he mustered on sail ships from Brantevik. Two world wars didn't frigthen him, but he continued his voyages at sea. Calmly and soberly he tells about mines, torpedoes and u-boats. The sea and the ships were already in his school years a main interest.  He had already noticed how very shifting the colors of the sea and the sky could be over the hours of the day and the time of the year. 1916 he made his first water-color. It was his father's schooner Handy that was his model. His painting got a boost when Frans became captain and had his own boat to be responsible for. He underlines strongly that the sea always offer new motives. The sea in moonlight, nightfall, in storm and in sun rise, and when the surface of the sea is like a mirror - to see and feel the changes of the sea gives a feeling that is richer and different than a lot else. Because of his great skill captain Olsson has been able to give us some of the hidden riches of the sea. His paintings of the sailing ships must be a historic contribution, when he as an eyewitness captures the different types of sailing ships that we have, keeping them alive on his paintings."

 

...and in a later interview;

"The marine painter should be devoted to the sea:

It took a long time before I was able to capture the shifting play of colors, Captain says. Painting on an easel was out of question, who would be able to ask a wave to stand still? I collected the images in my head and then I had to bring them back on canvas. I sketched on the bridge in all haste."  

 

Frans B. Olsson's exhibitions;

1939 Österlens Museum, Simrishamn, Sweden,  1947 Middlesborough Art Gallery, UK, 1952 Leander Pehrson's Simrishamn, 1961 Den Frie Udstilling, Copenhagen, and "Sjöfart 61", Helsingborg, Sweden,

1962 Schulauer Fährhaus, Hamburg, 1962 Den Frie Udstilling Copenhagen - his biggest exhibition with more than 70 paintings. 

1965 Ship Museum Gothenburg, Sweden, and  Österlen's Museum Simrishamn, 1966 - 1968 in Lomma Sail Club Lomma Sail Club as well as twice in each of Leander Pehrson's Simrishamn and Passenger ship m/s Gripen, Malmö and SSA Malmö. In 1970 and 1971 two exhibitions in Seaman's House, Malmö and the last exhibition was in 1972 at "Den Frie Udstilling" in Copenhagen. In  2002 a retrospective exhibition was carried out at Hoppet Maritime Museum in Brantevik, Sweden.