Carol McLaughlin Kortnik is primarily a self-taught artist but has had a semester in drawing and art appreciation at Walla, Walla, Washington Community College. Carol is adept at working in watercolor, pastel, bronze sculpture, fiber arts, and mixed media collage. Carol’s art is in a naturalist style with representational themes.

She was born in Steamboat Springs Colorado. After her farming family later moved to Enterprise, Oregon, she was inspired to try drawing with wood-burning skills in the early 1980s. Her Mother, Hope, was a very accomplished quilt maker and probably impressed a lot of artistic design skills on Carol.

After meeting her husband, Mark Kortnik in 1986, they began their successful career as professional artists. In 1988, they opened one of the first main street art galleries in the popular tourist town of Joseph, Oregon. Now after some 35 years, they own and operate Aspen Grove Gallery, where they display their original paintings, limited edition giclee prints, and bronze sculptures.

Carol enjoys a variety of subjects such as California quail, songbirds, landscapes, northwest petroglyph designs, and art based on the ancient cave drawings found in France and Spain. Carol’s bronze art sculptures are based on prehistoric drawings of animals such as bison and horses. Her bronze sculptures are unique because they turn a two-dimensional prehistoric drawing into a three-dimensional figure.

Carol was featured on the OPB Oregon Art Beat television program because of her wide variety of creative skills. Click Here to watch the video.