Painting, music, and birdsong – 'these are the things that give me strength and faith in the world' – the Dinosaur Designs founder on her passion for nature, art, and embracing life

This interview is part of the My Ritual series from Homes & Gardens, which explores the ways that leading tastemakers find calm and connection in their busy lives. Part of our wellbeing and sanctuary content, you'll find plenty of tips and nuggets of wisdom as well as product recommendations to help you create your own daily wellness rituals, for a healthy body and calm mind.

Color, nature, art, and adventure have always resonated at the heart of Louise Olsen’s work and life, as both a designer and painter of abstract art. Together with her husband Stephen Ormandy, Louise co-founded the jewellery and homewares business Dinosaur Designs.

'Both my parents were artists,' explains Louise – the late eminent Australian painter John Olsen and Valerie Olsen-Strong – 'and when I was growing up, they had an art school in an old bakery in Sydney. As there wasn't any childcare in those days, my brother Tim (now a leading gallerist) and I just went to art school from an early age, always being behind the scenes.'

Based in the Sydney suburb of Bronte, in Australia, Louise takes her inspiration for her collections from her natural surroundings, the human body, and the art world, 'as well as what comes from experimenting with the paint and resin we use to create Dinosaur Designs pieces,' she adds.

Dinosaur Designs has grown from a weekend stall at Paddington Markets in Sydney into a global enterprise, now with stores in Australia, London and New York, and celebrates its 40^th anniversary this year. I spoke to Louise about helps her to feel focused, energized, and balanced.

Louise Olsen shares the rituals that inspire and nourish her creativity

How do you kickstart your day?

I’m not a big breakfast person, so I start with water laced with lemon or apple cider vinegar before grabbing a coffee on my way to work. In the summer, I love walking to Bronte Beach near our home for an early morning swim. Water is so revitalizing, even just listening to the rhythms of the sea makes me happy.

Do you have particular ways to help you focus?

Transcendental meditation is always a great go-to, but not necessarily every day. I draw on it when I’m very stressed or I’ve hit a creative block. Twenty minutes a day helps me to bring peace and clarity to my busy mind.

As a family, you have always been a tight-knit trio (with artist daughter Camille, now 26). How do you like to spend time together at home?

We love to cook, particularly in the summer. We open up the doors and windows of the house, where we live in Bronte, Sydney – to take in the amazing views of the Pacific Ocean and to let the evening sea breeze flow through – and we fire up the barbecue, shuck fresh oysters, and make big salads. It's just lovely easy, breezy summer living.

What part does your home play in your creative process?

It is like a white canvas against which all three of us, joined by creativity, are constantly moving things around – hanging our paintings in different places, arranging our Dinosaur pieces in different ways. But then we mix in modernist designs by the likes of Harry Bertoia, Patricia Urquiola and Serge Mouille alongside indigenous Australian bark paintings. We juxtapose old and new, earthy and super slick, but it has to feel warm and worn, lived in and loved, and nothing like a showroom.

What materials do you surround yourself with?

At home, we mix leather and linens, woven baskets, wooden floorboards, and our own textured rugs, which we design in wool for Designer Rugs. The great thing about working in our studio is that there is a constant flow of ideas. We take inspiration from the shape, form and wonder of everything from chestnuts, bones, shells and clouds to wildflowers, river stones and watercolour paintings.

How does that translate into your resin pieces for Dinosaur Designs?

How something feels is very important – the resin we use for our homewares is a relatively modern material, but we work with it in a very hand-felt way. The more you touch them, the better the patina one of our salad bowls gets, from being washed by hand, rubbed with tea towels, covered in olive oil.

Color is fundamental to your work. How do you draw on it in your everyday life?

When you look at a color, you feel it too. Color is about the emotion and memories it brings. In my work, I'm often trying to find groups of colors that vibrate and sing together. My dad once said, ‘color rushes to our heads, it really exhilarates us, but then tone touches the soul.’ Too much color ends up looking like a fruit salad. Tone allows colors to really be themselves.

How important is scent to you?

I use fragrant natural oils by Ayu, founded by Sydney girls Alannah Quin and Madeleine Whitter ten years ago, and fragrances by my friend Saskia Havekes of leading Sydney florist Grandiflora. I also love the smell of the Australian bush, especially in the heat of the summer when the scent of eucalyptus and mimosa fills the air. And I always wash our Italian Society Limonta sheets in lavender linen wash and then put them out to dry in the garden, so when I get into bed at night, it feels like sleeping in the sun.

When do you carve out quiet time for yourself?

The hour-and-a-half drive to the countryside to my Dad’s old place in the Southern Highlands is a gift for listening to podcasts. I enjoy Bella Freud's Fashion Neurosis – I love that she hails from a family of artists and how she shares her life with her interviewees (Cate Blanchett, Kristin Scott Thomas, Christian Louboutin, Jonathan Anderson). She has an inquisitive mind, asking about the things we often overlook.

How do you feel about ageing? Do you fight or embrace it?

The most important thing is to look healthy. When someone looks well, no matter their age, their beauty emanates from their spirit and soul as much as how they look. I try to eat well, laugh, have fun and embrace this wonderful time of life I am in. And I am always moving – walking, swimming, dancing – because it brings out all the things inside me that makes my brain happy too. For my skin, I use Rationale skincare, developed over decades of research by a friend Richard Parker.

How does your painting process nourish you?

I love the way it sharpens my eye and makes me feel. It is like working with an orchestra: playing with all these wonderful notes – colour, composition, ideas, memory, the subconscious mind – which makes it such a great adventure. The reason I started Dinosaur Designs with Steve (and our then third partner, Liane Rossler) was to explore something else in another creative realm, away from the art world. I've always painted in my mind, even when designing something, but to have been more physical with it for the last 15 years, it feels like life has come full circle and I'm back to where I really belong.

What do you hope that your work brings to others?

I hope my work opens people up to the world in a creative or imaginative way, like music can. That's why I find abstract art so interesting – it pushes people beyond preconceived ideas, and whether inspired by nature, an object or a still life, it’s about how we play with it rather than worrying about what it should look like. Let's just get lost in it for a while.

And when the noise around you gets too loud...

Being in the studio, painting, listening to music, looking at nature, whispering to a full moon. There's beautiful bird life here in Bronte – I find it very calming to listen to them sing and watch them float across the sky. These are the things that give me strength and faith in the world.

Embrace Louise's rituals with these meaningful buys

Shop Louise's homeware and jewellery at Dinosaur Designs.