Carole Doerr Allen - 2021 Honored Member

Carole Doerr Allen, the Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club's Honored Member for 2021, is a representative oil painter whose work has been described as portraying isolation, solitude and individual strength.  She depicts landscapes with wildlife, domestic animals and/or people subtly creating a mood.  Whether the scene is the sun setting low across a cold wintery landscape or cows grazing in brilliant summer light, the paintings contemplate private momentary glimpses of every day occurrences.  Her home in rural New Jersey speaks to us in her paintings, like the Chadds Ford of Andrew Wyeth.

Carole grew up in an environment filled with art and antiques and the parents and neighbors who loved them.  During elementary and high school her art teachers recognized and nurtured her talent and encouraged her creativity.  Later she attended Pratt Institute as a scholarship student where she majored in Art Education and minored in painting.  Here she was active in Pratt's Saturday program teaching painting and puppetry to young students.  As part of her student teaching experience she taught portraiture to young artists at the Brooklyn Museum.  Noted professors at Pratt Jacob Landau, Joseph Stapleton, and Rudolph Baranik taught her to master the constraints of the page or canvas, encouraged her to develop a sense of quietude, and helped her to use her strong inner voice.  After graduation, she worked corporately in New York City, in a position where she still had the time and interest to continue to hone her painting skills.

Carole says of her work, "I like to explore those fleeting moments that weren't fully realized.  What happens within them? How do I relate to them?...I can only paint my own life and hope that my work honors what I see and feel - and that others find it relatable."

Her association with the CLWAC is serendipitous.   She happened to visit the Salmagundi Club when a juried show of women artists sponsored by the Club was on view.  She was so impressed with the quality of the work in the exhibition that she submitted work to Club exhibits and was accepted to membership in 2003.  Immediately she began to win awards.

She was the CLWAC'c Medal of Honor in Oil winner in 2016 with a painting titled "The Far Edge of Winter".  It is a magnificent canvas of Common Grackles in flight with their characteristic controlled chaos fluttering iridescent hues against the promise of a warm morning in the woods.  The canvas is rhythmic and exciting.  Her non-traditional paintings of dogs have gained awards from art shows at dog exhibitions in Wichita, Kansas and New York City.  The American Artist Professional League has bestowed its President's Award on one of her paintings.  She has also been a finalist in several Artist Magazine competitions and has had work on the cover of the Ellarslie Open Magazine at the Trenton City Museum.

Carole served on the board of CLWAC for several years.  She was instrumental in directing the transition of the annual dues collection from the Members and Associates from a tedious manual collection using paper invoices, receipts, membership cards, and postage to a computer program. The database that she organized has been invaluable to the Club's officers.  She has also donated her time to serve as a hostess and handle the desk at the Club's exhibits.

When not painting or otherwise creating, Carole is at home in Hunterdon County with seven dogs, three cats, and a horse.  Competitive dog agility and canine scent detection are additional passions as is building random stone walls on her property.

For her beautiful paintings, her dedication and her hard work for the Club, she is the Honored Member for 2021.