Carolyn Anderson Works

Carolyn Anderson’s home and studio sit alone on the open plains of northern Montana, just 40 miles from the Canadian border. Overlooking the Milk River to the north, and the Bear Paw Mountains to the south, she refers to this area as “no foreground, just middle-ground and background.”

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 and a CMR Artists’ Choice Award. She has also received several Master Awards of Excellence at the American Impressionist Society show, several Northwest Rendezvous Merit Awards and a 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.

Her paintings have been featured in numerous publications, including Southwest Art, Art of the West, The Big Sky Journal, Fine Art Connoisseur, American Artist, PleinAir, and Art and Architecture. Anderson has acquired an excellent reputation as a painting instructor, teaching several workshops 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
continues to use the information in lectures, writing, and workshop instruction.

Some Exhibitions
* Buffalo Bill Art Show
* Charles Russell Art Show
* Northwest Rendezvous
* Western Rendezvous of Art