"For me, a painting begins when something about a scene catches my eye and my heart. I have an inner stirring that says you've got to paint this. Usually it has to do with the light... a highlight on something, rim lighting perhaps or high contrast of light and shadow - drama!"

Carolyn is passionate about all things mountain and desert. She lives in Las Vegas, Nevada, and travels the Western US with her husband, Erwin, a Professional Tour Operator, and paints En Plein Air while he hikes and climbs. Together they currently offer the only Painting & Hiking Tour to visitors to Las Vegas.

Please share with us your background and journey to the artist you are today.
I am passionate about all things mountain, ocean and desert inspired by woodsmoke, pine, sage, and salt air!! I call Las Vegas, Nevada, home and travel the Western US with my husband, Erwin, a Professional Tour Operator with his own business, Out West Adventure Tours, which takes visitors from around the globe that come to Las Vegas, to all the State and National Parks in the West! They are very enthusiastic to see these amazing places!! As a tour company he currently offers THE ONLY Painting & Hiking Tour to clientele and this gives me many great painting opportunities as well as the opportunity to pass on my love of the great outdoors and painting En Plein Air!

When I was 10 years old I started Summer oil painting lessons at a prestigious Museum, the Butler Institute of American Art, in Youngstown, Ohio. Many a Summer morning I rode there on my purple sparkly banana seat bike with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in my basket to enjoy for lunch under one of the huge trees on it's expansive front lawn! Still today, when I open my Pochade box and the smell of oil paints greets me, I am transported back in time to my beginnings as an oil painter and I thank God for giving me that in my life!

Through my high school and college years of art education and exploration I experienced many other art mediums such as oil pastels, watercolors, and acrylic paints, but when all was said and done I returned to oil paints as my medium of choice. A turning point in my career was the opportunity to be mentored by Master Artist Tim Tanner while living in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Represented by The Legacy Gallery at that time, I had the opportunity to spend many hours there surrounded by his art as well as a host of other world-class artists, seeing this was the level I wanted to attain with my own art. I went on to study Plein Air painting with other tremendous Western artists Matt Smith, Jim Wodark, and Bill Cramer, deciding landscape painting was for me!

Now, I travel and visit the State and National Parks of the Western United States capturing their beauty, in oil paints, for future generations. While I am based in Las Vegas, Nevada, I also consider the nature of Arizona, California, Utah, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming to be my home! Through my website I offer original oil paintings, (online and in-person) lessons, and accept painting commissions.
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"Through my high school and college years of art education and exploration I experienced many other art mediums such as oil pastels, watercolors, and acrylic paints, but when all was said and done I returned to oil paints as my medium of choice."

You studied at the world renowned Butler Institute of American Art. Tell us about this time and its impact on you.
When I was 10 years old my mother enrolled me in Summer oil painting lessons at the famous Butler Institute of American Art and how prophetic that was to come to be in my life! From the first moment I held brush to canvas and smelled the oil paints and Linseed oil I was hooked!! I raced there each lesson day, way ahead of all the other students, on my purple, sparkly banana seat bike, with a delicious peanut butter sandwich in my basket for lunch. When I would get there, (because I was there sooo early!) I had the ultimate privilege of getting to go into one of the backrooms with the Curator and help carry out all the easels and supplies for our days work! Wow! And I spent hours wandering the art filled rooms staring at all these incredible masterpieces!!

Today it still takes my breath away! I love it. When I open my pochade box to paint the smell transports me back in time and I remember it like yesterday! After lessons, before heading home, I'd sit in the huge front lawn under the big trees and eat my peanut butter sandwich! On my way home I'd stop at the library to take out yet another of their many Step-By-Step drawings books to take home and continue my education there. I was always drawing and before long could draw anything I saw. My bedroom was set up with an easel and oil paints. I painted mostly horses... little did I know my future would would be as a Western artist! Through my teen years I regularly went into the local college book store at Youngstown State University to buy art supplies to teach myself other disciplines. My mom was there getting her Masters Degree so I would tagalong with her to school and she'd give me money and send me off to the bookstore where I spent hours browsing supplies!

My art education has been lifelong and included high school courses, college courses where I studied life drawing, and then private studies with several incredible Master artists like Tim Tanner, Matt Smith, Jim Wodarkand Bill Cramer. In fact I am a sum of all the wonderful art teachers that have touched my life. It's all been so wonderful!! I am so thankful and grateful for the Butler Institute of American Art and I hope one day to have a work acquired by them (and I have just the piece in mind wink wink), the Museum that started it all for me!!!

"Importantly, the composition needs to be able to answer the question "What do I want to say here?" That helps me identify my focal point which is necessary for placement within the composition and edge work as I paint."

​How do you approach painting?
For me, a painting begins when something about a scene catches my eye and my heart. I have an inner stirring that says you've got to paint this. Usually it has to do with the light... a highlight on something, rim lighting perhaps or high contrast of light and shadow - drama! I feel like light draws the eye into the scene. Importantly, the composition needs to be able to answer the question "What do I want to say here?" That helps me identify my focal point which is necessary for placement within the composition and edge work as I paint. And, if I can name the painting, that solidifies it in my mind... if I can't, I feel like I don't have a solid start.

I start with some quick thumbnail sketches and I take some photos for reference so when the light changes I don't chase it but can refer back to my photo. It's amazing having cell phones that make this very easy to do!! Also to turn a color photo to gray scale for values. Things go pretty quickly from here as the light changes so quickly. Based on the thumbnail sketches I know if I'll paint the motif in Portrait or Landscape. I use a thinned paint color, usually Yellow Ochre but sometimes Ultramarine Blue to draw in the main masses. I use these two colors because they are colors I use frequently in my color mixing and will therefore be basically absorbed into my painting. Addressing my color palette, I use a limited palette consisting of a warm and cool of each - yellow, red and blue which I split on my palette warms on one side cools on the other with white anchors, so-to-speak, on each end. This is my own device and break from a traditional palette setup but it works quite nicely for me. I will have a puddle of Burnt Umber and Thalo Green handy at times. I always start with a nice size pile of cool purple since that is the base of so much of my color
mixing. After the draw in, I go for somewhat of a value study in the underpainting. Establishing lights and darks is the goal here and to judge the paintings balance. There is SOOO much to painting, so many moving parts so-to-speak! Most people never realize and if we do our job well, we make it look easy!!

Almost every artist is excited about the start of a new painting... in the middle phase enthusiasm can wane as obstacles come up that weren't addressed by pre-planning with thumbnail sketches and design. Many paintings never see the finish because of this. With students I work with we address this very fact. With solid preparation it is possible to finish works Alla Prima, which is, in one session. People will ask me how long it takes to finish a painting and I answer that it varies. Size and complexity are the big contributing factors.  Obviously smaller less complex pieces can take just a few hours, or a few hour session or two. When I go out in the field Plein Air painting I take 2 sizes of linen panels, 6 x 8 and 9 x 12. If a composition seems worthy I may take it to a larger piece. I do have a lot of people that like to collect these sizes though.

Many times the people that see me painting in the field are the ones that want to acquire that painting.... because it has become sentimental by virtue of their experience that day and by a personal connection we established which means the world to me.

"I consider it an opportunity, to convey an accurate pictoral description of our landscape and I want my work to stand up amongst the best and for the long haul!"

​What is specifically unique about your work, how can a painting be recognised as a Carolyn Kollegger?
That is an interesting question because unlike some artists that are identified by a certain specific genre selection, I feel I am identified by the geographical location of my work. And, I am a storyteller. I am out there in the field with extreme temperatures and often, circumstances, and I share that back story with art patrons! Even something as light and funny (now!) as the time I got attacked by a bee on my easel when I started to paint, I share about a painting! While I am identified as a Landscape and Wildlife Artist of the West, that encompasses much... much territory and varied flora and fauna. I do love and want to paint everything, all if it!! This of course requires one getting good at everything! You need to learn about and get good at all sorts of animal anatomy - horses, deer, Big Horn Sheep! And locale... desert, mountains, beach, street scenes from everywhere... I love it all!! I have a Western Children’s Series I started years ago and this, along with Commissions I do, requires figure work and portraiture. So, for me, I can't restrict myself and, believe me, I've thought about it, and would love to do that, but that isn't being true to me. It has been said though, that to be good at any one discipline within oil painting you need to have experienced all of them... that only makes you a stronger, better, artist, and I believe this is true! At the end of the day, I feel people will be able to identify me by my Plein Air and landscape work with my consistent color palette, clarity of focal point, solid representationalism with detail, and beautiful refined brushwork!

​How do you want your paintings to impact viewers?
I want people that contemplate my work to be impacted by the amount of love I pour into my subjects and compositions. They will get clarity of what I have chosen to paint by how I thoroughly, but not laboriously, I over render my work. I pay attention to, and really care about, detail. I feel like I love pulling out certain details wherein I could choose to leave them out to lessen the amount of work for myself but I don't. This is important because my Mission Statement is: With so many global catastrophes ravaging our landscape, I feel called to capture in oils the fragile, vulnerable, ever-changing landscape, as it is today, for future generations. So, I want Yellowstone National Park to look like it does and the same with Yosemite and the Grand Canyon... etc! Especially, iconic images like the Grand Teton need to be identifiable! What if one day part of the Grand Teton cracked off? My images pre this event would remain a part of history! I know that's a dramatic example but it serves to drive my point home. Thank goodness for images of the New York City skyline pre 9/11/2001! So powerful! So as artists, and certainly photographers included, we do have this commission in life, I consider it an opportunity, to convey an accurate pictoral description of our landscape and I want my work to stand up amongst the best and for the long haul!

Describe some of the typical reactions from people that discover your work?
Well, some of the most common things people say to me are "Did you paint that?", "Do you sell your work?" and "Do you have a business card?". I am also thankful to be able to say that people frequently comment "Wow, that's very good!". There are so many people that LOVE coming upon an artist at work and they actually want to take a picture of me or with me, which makes me feel like a Rockstar! I am especially thankful if at that moment my painting is beyond " the awkward phase"!! I of course talk to everyone and some of these very people are the ones that will purchase that particular painting they saw me working on as soon as it is put on the website. So you never know who you are talking to! Some people say "Wow, I always wanted to be an artist.", or "I always wanted to try painting." So, I hand them my paint brush and tell them to go ahead and they are adopted! They say, "No no, I don't want to mess it up!" To which I say, "Don't worry, you can't mess it up!" They are so relieved and they ever so cautiously touch brush to canvas like they're terrified! They make a stroke and they beam with delight!! It is so gratifying!! But another interesting common reaction that people have, is multiple purchases. A new collector may ask, do you have any more work I can see and I am thinking they don't like this particular piece and would rather have another but then, they buy several and in some cases many. When I think in terms of Collectors rather than more Collectors, my Collectors have more paintings! I can identify in my mind these Collectors, our encounters, and I am deeply moved by their love and support of my work and my career. Wow! These are awesome people who were put on this earth, I'm sure, to validate artists.
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"The artistic process for me leaves no room for meals or phone calls or other distractions if I have my way, there is just the mission in front of me and I am buoyed by excitement and hope... HOPE that keeps me moving forward taking this vision, this idea I hold in my head and getting it down in oils on canvas."

What 3 paintings would you say best define your career so far and why?
So I have more than 3 paintings that define my career and this is why: My first Gallery sale: I took in the painting "Head Count" and left it with the Gallery owner hoping somewhere along the way it would sell and I wouldn't look like a fool!! She called me 5 minutes after I left and said a couple walked in right after I left it with her, bought it, and could I bring her more! I was so thankful and learned about the Gallery /Artist relationship. 

My first REALLY LARGE piece... "Bucket of Chicken" because a friend with a vacation home near us bought it. Our kids played together when they were in town and when she saw it in my studio she asked how much I was going to ask for it. She wrote me a check right then and there! I learned about the power of friendship and about framing and shipping really large pieces!

​"Fresh Fish" another friend/ collector who said she knew when she first saw me working on Honey, the Grizzly Bear, in my studio she knew she was going to buy it when I finished it!! All of these sales, when I doubted myself and my abilities, told me I was on the right track and to just keep going...

My hardest piece "Two Dear", wherein I agonized over the correct rendering of every detail including the accurate portrayal of the river water and under-water rocks but, most especially the little gal floating the river in the tube... because my precious youngest daughter was the model and it needed to be more than perfect!! The couple that purchased it were very appreciative of all of it and it taught me that the time, and even extra time, we put into pieces is worth it! Don't accept half backwards work from yourself but push for the best you can do!

The first Commission I received was a total surprise and came out of the blue, "Wedding Meadow". A groom was entrusting me to paint the meadow he and his bride-to-be would be married in! It was to be a gift to his bride on their wedding day and it brings me to tears even now as I think of it! Talk about no pressure.. It spoke to me of the trust Collectors of Commission pieces put in us.

My first multiple art piece sale (8 pieces in all plus a Commission, "Three Amigos") broadened my horizons so to speak! Where before I had thought it was great good fortune to sell one piece at a time, now someone validates me in an even more significant way! And this particular couple had such integrity as to offer me MORE money for the Commission because they thought I under valued it! I mean who does that?! That taught me about the integrity of art Collectors and makes me strive to live up to their belief in me as an artist.

My first sale during all the chaos and unexpectedness of Covid was to a wonderful couple that already had a piece of mine "Home On The Range". They reached out and inquired about several pieces I had on my website and acquired three. This taught me that there are truly angels out there that will keep us buoyed up and moving forward in even the worst of times! All of my Collectors are precious and life-altering encounters of the best kind! They keep me fortified for the artistic journey still to come and keep me demanding the best of myself!

​You were a big city person (you lived and worked in NYC as a marketing director for several firms). How did you develop a passion for western landscapes?
I grew up on the East Coast and actually never thought I'd live anywhere else really. We had a beautiful home in Florida and a stable full of horses and were quite set. I didn't yearn to move out West, it just happened as a natural course of events... such as often happens with destiny! The economic collapse of 2007 caused my husband and I to rethink our life plan. Having spent the majority of their lifetime in Florida we wanted to show our children life in the mountains (my husband being from Switzerland)! So, we moved the family to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where my husband had spent some time as a ski racer in his 20s. I will never forget driving up to the top of the Pass that leads into Jackson, with our pickup truck and trailer full of horses and looking down seeing the beauty of Jackson Hole for the first time - I KNEW I had arrived at a destiny place! Wow!! Talk about life-changing! Seeing and living among the seasons and the scenery of Jackson, the Grand Teton National Park, and Yellowstone National Park I wanted to paint like never before and capture it all! So, I don't think I developed this interest in the Western landscape, it was always there deep down, just waiting for ME to arrive!

What do you enjoy most about painting and what do you feel when you are creating?
What I love about painting is being able to manipulate the oil paints first color-wise then value-wise then creating masses and forms with every step getting closer to a finished image that will be delightful to look at and enjoy! ​When I paint, I lose all track of time! The artistic process for me leaves no room for meals or phone calls or other distractions if I have my way, there is just the mission in front of me and I am buoyed by excitement and hope... HOPE that keeps me moving forward taking this vision, this idea I hold in my head and getting it down in oils on canvas. I am single-minded in my pursuit to bring out the most perfect representation of my subject I can achieve.

What can we look forward to in 2021 from you?
I am excited for all 2021 holds for me! It will be a great year for creativity and productivity! I will be out in the field most of the time!! I plan to participate in as many outdoor Invitationals and Plein Air Festivals as possible, creating an awesome body of work, at various locales, the rest of the time! When we aren't out on a multi-day Canyon Tour we travel by motorcoach which is quite nice to various locations including the California coast, Arizona, Wyoming, Montana, Utah, Nevada, New Mexico and for the first time, Alaska! I will also be preparing for a lengthy stay in Europe where I plan on doing pastoral scenes of the Swiss Alps as I have dual citizenship; American and Swiss (by marriage).
I want to do street scenes as well because Switzerland, France, Italy - all of Europe has these wonderful outdoor gourmet eateries that are so colorful! And then, there's the Eiffel Tower to be painted!! As my husband will be climbing Acongagua in Argentina, as prep for an Everest Summit, Patrons can expect to see some of those landscapes coming from me!! 2021 will see me Juried into more prestigious Art Shows and having Exhibitions of my work as well!! It will be a busy and amazing year!!


Website: www.carolynkollegger.com