Carole Katchen

Carole Katchen has always loved painting people. She found her first subjects on buses, in coffee houses, on stage with The Denver Symphony Orchestra and in the studio of The Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble. Always looking for new, interesting characters she hitchhiked with a sketchpad across North Africa and then from Mexico to Peru. She expanded to landscapes in Colorado, Scotland and Taiwan and to flowers in her own garden. At the height of her career, she now continues to paint people, but incorporates abstract textures and colors into the designs.

In 1971 she won her first art award, Outstanding Student at West Valley College, Campbell, CA. Since then she has been listed in Who’s Who in American Art for more than 25 years. She was designated Outstanding Working Woman by the US Department of Labor and Golden Mentor by the International Association of Pastel Societies. Her drawings and paintings have been featured in museums and galleries throughout the United States, in South America, Taiwan and China. Her first solo exhibit was with Saks Galleries in 1993.

She was born and began her art career in Denver, Colorado. She received her BA from the University of Colorado, but says her most important art training came from mentor Pawel Kontny. She worked as an illustrator before she became a fine artist. The four children’s books she illustrated have sold over a million copies. She has also written 14 art instruction books published by Watson-Guptill and North Light Books, translated into French, Dutch, German, and Chinese. She has lived for the last two decades in Hot Springs, AR, focusing largely on commissioned portraits of families and groups of friends celebrating a special moment.

She says, “How lucky am I to be able to spend my whole life painting the world around me! I can’t imagine anything more fun or more challenging than painting the people I’ve met over these many years.”