Coming of age when he did, in Northern California of the mid fifties, when serious artists around him were preoccupied with Abstract Expressionism, Olaf Palm, mesmerized by the Dutch and Flemish masters, struck out in his own painterly direction.

Instinctively bohemian, rural in temperament, with plenty of practical life skills, he fell in with friends of the back-to-the-land movement and began his search for the perfect natural environment to suit his own nature. He found it on the Mendocino coast, where on and off for thirty years, he painted his life and lived his painting.

Many people, artists among them, think of Palm as the most accomplished artist to come out of the Mendocino Coast art community, which is saying a great deal, considering this region's national reputation for high quality art and artists.

This book is dedicated to giving those who didn't know him something of the experience of being in Olaf Palm's presence, to demonstrating why those who see his work are instantly smitten -- with his humanity as well as his brush strokes -- and to placing Palm in the context of important California artists.

Now available in fine bookstores and online.

The Epilogue, an essay by the author, tells the story of Palm's last days and describes the rollicking, one-of-a kind funeral Palm choreographed for himself.

Price $35 (includes postage and handling) plus CA tax (California residents only). To order, click on the "Place an Order" link at the bottom of this page.

Also available at the Mendocino Art Center and California bookstores.

About the Author/compiler

Irene D. Thomas is a former academic with a Ph.D. in English Linguistics. Her previous publications have been mostly in Education -- essays on pedagogy for and about teachers, textbooks for children, educational software designs -- and Travel. She has been awarded a Fulbright lectureship to Prague, a prize in play writing, and twice the first-place award for creative non-fiction at the Mendocino Coast Writers Conference. She is currently finishing a book about another of her passions, Argentine Tango. She lives with her husband on five acres of redwood forest, near Mendocino.