Artist & Writer
It takes decades to develop a unique and mature vision.
Explore the world of Carole Katchen — from vibrant pastels to bold new oils on canvas, six decades of captivating stories told through color.
View the Collection
It takes decades to develop a unique and mature vision.
Explore the world of Carole Katchen — from vibrant pastels to bold new oils on canvas, six decades of captivating stories told through color.
View the CollectionA career spanning decades of artistic evolution across continents
Carole Katchen has been a professional artist for more than 60 years, showing her works in galleries and museums throughout the United States, Asia and South America. She has won numerous awards from art societies and museums.
Her books about how to be a successful artist, and the three children's books she wrote and illustrated, have sold over one million copies. She has worked in most painting media, but recently she has been painting exclusively with oils on canvas.
Most recently she completed four oil paintings for the Kuroshio Museum in Taiwan — a testament to her enduring international reach and creative vitality.
Carole's latest work explores a bold new direction — painting exclusively with oils on canvas
A selection from decades of Katchen's pastel paintings — an overview of her celebrated body of work
How Carole tells stories through her paintings
People think that storytelling is only done with words, but you can also tell a story in a picture.
To tell a story you need several elements:
Carole generally starts her paintings with actual people. Either she has a model in front of her or she uses reference drawings from her sketchbook. She has found it extremely useful to keep a sketchbook at all times for capturing the features, expressions and gestures of people in public. Often the situation she is sketching will be enough to inspire a whole painting; at other times she looks for interesting people and puts them together in a narrative way.
Basically the plot is what the characters are doing. If she wants her characters to be gossiping, she will place them close together and have them leaning toward each other. If she wants them gossiping about someone else, she can have them all looking in the same direction out of the picture.
Where is the party taking place? If it's an art gallery, she puts some pictures on the wall. If it's a living room, she adds living room furniture. For a more public event, she can add a crowd of smaller, abstract figures.
Is it a happy occasion? Then the painting will probably be bright and colorful. If she wants it more dramatic, she adds light and shadows from a single light source. If she wants it mysterious, she uses dark colors with bright areas only for the faces and accents.
Starting with a maitre d' with his nose up in the air — people in public who are only involved with themselves.
Adding a couple on the right, creating a triangular composition. Placed close together, but not paying attention to each other.
Blocking in values and colors, defining the negative space with flat color, focusing on overall design.
Completing the first layer of color and suggesting a crowd in the background with abstract strokes.
Blending all initial color to create a solid image, strengthening colors, adding final details.
For inquiries about Carole's work, commissions, or exhibitions
Hot Springs, Arkansas • Denver, Colorado
624 Prospect St., Hot Springs, AR 71901