“After moving to Teton Valley, Idaho in 1991, I just knew that I had to paint. There is so much beauty all around where I live, as anyone who has ever visited Teton National Park or Yellowstone knows.”

Traveling around Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho there is no end to the breath-taking scenes that just seem to be begging to be painted and Carole can be found standing in front of her easel in every season doing just that.

Growing up in California she learned to love the outdoors, hiking and camping in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Now she primarily paints outside on location (plein air). When painting in this manner it is imperative to capture the scene as quickly as possible, before the light changes, the clouds disappear, or rain begins to fall. To facilitate this goal, she generally paints with a limited palette of three colors plus white. Simplifying her palette in this way has helped her to capture nature’s ever- changing moods. These are rather small paintings compared to the studio pieces she may paint from them later, when combining a few of these studies to paint a larger piece.

Carole also paints still lifes, an altogether different style than plein air painting. “I paint these using the old master’s technique known as chiaroscuro, carving the opaque, thicker lights out of the thinner warm shadows. This process is delightful, as I apply many layers of glaze to get beautiful transparent surfaces with vibrant, colorful highlights. There is great joy for me in this process. Besides, on those very cold winter days, I am grateful for my warm studio!”

Carole has studied with Scott Christensen, Jim Wilcox, Kathy Wipfler, Matt Smith, Robert Moore, Len Chmeil, and T. Allen Lawson.

She lives with her husband in Victor, Idaho, not far from Jackson, Wyoming. Her constant companion is a big black Labrador, providing her with much-needed protection from bears, moose and cougars. “We can tell some animal stories!” she jests.