About the Artist
Originally from the Chicago area, Anderson attended school at Illinois State University. While there, she took time off to join VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) and was assigned to the Rocky Boy Reservation in north central Montana. Many years later she returned to make this part of the West her permanent home.
Anderson has developed her own singular style, learning from other artists who inspired and supported her, but experimenting with the boundaries of traditional techniques. Artist William Reese called her work “poetry – a poetic painting grows as time goes on.”
Over the years, she has received numerous awards for her paintings, including twice winning the C.M. Russell Museum Auction Best of Show. She has also received several Master Awards of Excellence at the American Impressionist Society show, several Northwest Rendezvous Merit Awards and the NWR President’s Choice Award. She has participated in major national shows for over thirty years, including the Prix de West, C.M. Russell Museum Show, and the Coors Western Art Exhibit.
A respected workshop instructor, Anderson teaches several classes a year. She has taught for the Fechin School, Scottsdale Artists’ School, Frye Museum, National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, and Walt Disney Imagineering. While doing work for Walt Disney Imagineering in California, she was contracted to research and write about visual language. She has continued her research in that area of art and science and uses this information in her writing and workshop instruction.
ARTICLES
Do Your Paintings Look Stiff? by Carolyn Anderson, Realism Today
Women Celebrating Women by Cynthia Close, Artists Magazine, October 2020
Does Warmer Light Have Cooler Shadows? by Carolyn Anderson, Realism Today
Making Connections, Seeing Patterns by Clover Neiberg, Art of the West, July/Aug 2017
Workshop with Carolyn Anderson: A Personal Discoveryby Ann Feldman, Oil Painters of America, Dec. 12, 2016
Interpret Visual Information, Don’t Repeat It by M. Stephen Doherty, PleinAir Magazine, Feb/March 2015
Poetic Visions by Rosemary Carstens, Southwest Art, January 2012
Carolyn Anderson, Painting Workshop With the Masters, American Artist, Spring 2011
The Figure: 13 Artists Paint the Human Form, Southwest Art, January 2010
Seeing & Painting Beyond the Obvious by Allison Malafronte, American Artist, May 2010
Exceeding Expectations by Barbara Coyner, Art of the West, July/Aug 2008
Carolyn Anderson: Developing A Visual Language by Allison Malafronte, American Artist Workshop, Winter 2008
With Broad Strokes by Jo-Ann Swanson, Southwest Art, November 2007
Carolyn Anderson, Hi-Line Inspiration by Virginia A. Bryan, Big Sky Airlines Latitude, 2007
Carolyn Anderson, Aura of Possibility by Carleen Milburn, Fine Art Connoisseur, May 2006
Go Figure by Gussie Fauntleroy, Southwest Art, November 2006
Carolyn Anderson, Questioning Reality by Carleen Milburn, Big Sky Airlines Latitude, Spring 2005
Carolyn Anderson, Questioning Reality by Amy Archer, Big Sky Journal, Winter 2004
The Journey Continues by Vicki Stavig, Art of the West, Jan/Feb 2000
American Women Artists, Southwest Art, November 1996
A Sense of Place, Space by Vicki Stavig, Art of the West, September/October 1992