The Bristol Art Museum Announces
A Call for Art

 Gardens and Gathering Places

at Rogers Free Library
on view August 10th - September 23rd, 2026

Juror: Paul Olson

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Gardens and Gathering Places exhibits the spaces that bring people together to enjoy and reflect on the beauty of natural and human-made places. 

Artists were invited to respond to the colors and textures of flowers, trees, plants, vegetable patches, seaside lawns, baseball fields or imaginative spaces of gathering.

The theme welcomed interpretations ranging from realistic depictions to abstract impressions of growth, abundance, and belonging. 

This exhibition will be on view at Bristol Art Museum's community gallery at Rogers Free Library from August 10th - September 23rd, 2026.

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About the Juror
Paul Olson is a Rhode Island-based landscape painter inspired by the natural splendor of our beautiful Narragansett Bay. Olson’s artwork reflects his deep connection with nature and his love for the flora and fauna of the coastal landscape around him. In the summer months he can often be found at his easel on his small boat, documenting the effects of wind and weather, sky and water. 

Paul is also a lover of trees with one-person exhibitions  “Drawn to Woods” and “Drawn to Paint” at Arnold Arboretum and “A Brush With Trees at Blithewold” here in Bristol. His work has been exhibited in galleries throughout the Northeast, and in some less traditional spaces like the Providence Place Mall and the Local 57 Ironworkers Union Hall. Paul is also a potter making containers for bonsai and cultivating his own collection of miniature trees.

Olson has been a passionate teacher at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and Massachusetts College of Art and Design (MassArt) with a career spanning over 25 years. Still teaching Oil Painting as a Senior Critic in the Illustration Department at RISD, being semi-retired, Paul now spends more time in his bonsai garden and out painting in the open air.

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Exhibition Preview

From left to right: Vast World Rarely Visited by Greg Anthony, Bleeding Alliums II by Nico Amato, and Cascade by Mary Boulé Mainella