Born in Copenhagen, Ola Billgren became a painter in watercolor and oil and also did collage and graphic art. His early training was from his artist parents, Hans Billgren and Grete Lutzhoft-Billgren. By age 13, he was exhibiting watercolors and ink drawings locally in Skane, Sweden where his family had moved shortly after his birth. When he was 18, he traveled to Spain with his father, and saw art activity that much impacted his work.

Billgren settled in Lund, Sweden in 1960, and first did much lyrical abstract painting and participated in many group exhibitions. However, in 1963, he began doing photo-realist images, and in 1966, had an exhibition at the Galleri Karlsson in Stockholm. During the 1970s, he ad...