"Art is the vehicle through which I interpret my personal understanding of life. My passion to share that interpretation with others drives my explorations and guides my hand".

Carol Koutnik's art is consequently a revelation of her own contemplation of that life as well as a painterly portrayal of what she sees and experiences as she journeys it. Whether it is of the native palm trees of the coastal bend that she now calls home, the faces of Guatemalan women, or simple scenes of Saudi Arabian life, Carol's art satisfies the viewer's eye, stimulates the viewer's mind and touches the viewer's heart and soul. This is her gift.

Born in Chicago in 1942, Carol's maternal and paternal heritage is a marriage of central European potters and frame guilders with practicing artists, birthing in her an instinctive urge toward painting and an unquenchable thirst for refining her natural talents. She married young to a public health doctor, Alfred W. Koutnik. The couple, accompanied by their three children, lived and worked throughout the US, Europe and the Middle East. This multi-cultured life experience would inform Carol's work for years to come.

Carol's formal education began when Abstract Expressionism was the dominant "ism" of the art world of the United States. Students were handed a canvas, a big brush and oil paints with the admonition to "Paint!" This Carol did and with great gusto. Later, in West Germany, her Hungarian teacher suggested that she should first learn the basics prompting further education and leading to a technique well founded upon the "science" of painting yet infused with the "spirit" of the artist's evolving awareness. Her present philosophy regarding her work is "learn it, do it, teach it" as she continues her studies, creates her paintings, and passes on her wisdom to others.

Most influential to her art and her life has been her experiences in Saudi Arabia where she learned to live with few material goods and in comparative silence and isolation. Here she learned the significance of simply "being", opening a pathway into a deeper experience of her own spirituality. Of this exceptional time in her life, she shares, "I came to know, understand and to fearlessly reevaluate my feelings about freedom – to dramatically shift from ambivalence to passion". Her work poignantly reflects this process of personal transformation.

Strongly influence by her faith, Carol's art today reflects not only what she sees but what she feels – and the depth of her feeling. Through her work, she draws her viewers into a visual poetry of light, color and place. Carol now lives on the Texas Gulf Coast but continues to travel as both witness and teacher, constantly exploring anew, feeding her passion and refining her vision of the world around her.

Selected Recent Activities:

2010 West Texas, Nine Perspectives. Exhibit portraying a plein air painting trip to Big Bend and Ft. Davis, Texas. January to February, 2010. Rockport Center for the Arts.
2009 Gallery Affiliations: Pilar in Corpus Christi Texas, Windway Gallery of Art in Rockport Texas.
2009 Drawing and Painting Instructor at Rockport Center for the Arts and Studio 201.
2008 Winter Gardens Exhibit. The Gallery of Rockport, Rockport Texas.
2007, 2008 International Painting Instructor in Guatemala for Explore Guatemala.
2000-2008 Drawing and Painting Instructor at Estelle Stair Gallery, Rockport Center for The Arts, and Studio 201.
2007 Second Printing of Al Baha Sketchbook: A Journal in Saudi Arabia, ISBN 978-09710117-0-0
2007 Guatemala Explorations, Group Exhibition, Rockport Center for the Arts, Rockport, Texas.
2005 Poster Artist for 36th Annual Art Festival. One Person Exhibition, Rockport Center For the Arts, Rockport, Texas.
2004 Watercolor Art Society Houston International Exhibition. The Continental Center. Houston, Texas.
2002 Texas Watercolor Society National Exhibition. Rockport Center for the Arts, Rockport, Texas.
2001 Published AL BAHA [Saudi Arabia] SKETCHBOOK by Carol D. Koutnik. Hopkins-St-Claire Press, Corpus Christi, Texas.
2000 Texas Watercolor Society National Exhibition. One Allen Center. Houston, Texas.
1999 Enter the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. One Person Exhibit. Rockport Center for the Arts, Rockport, Texas.
1998 Watermedia lX International Exhibition. Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Colorado Springs, Colorado
1994-1998 Colorado Watercolor Society State Exhibitions. Colorado History Museum, Denver, Colorado.
1995 Ancient Arabia Today. One Person Exhibit. Joan R. Duncan Galleries. Koelbel Public Library, Littleton, Colorado.
1993 Al Baha Drawings, The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. One Person Exhibit. MaGrath Gallery, Bellarmine College, Louisville, Kentucky.

Education:

• Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.
• Illinois State University, Normal, Illinois.
• Art Institute of San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas.
• Blackhawk Mountain School of Art, Blackhawk, Colorado.
• Private Instruction, Workshops, Tours, World Travel.

News Reviews:

South Texas Catholic, October 2, 2009 by Tim Ernster: "Carol Koutnik's painting, "Auspice Maria" or "Under the Protection of Mary", brings together the many images which depict Mary, the mother of Jesus. The Mary we turn to in countless numbers to find peace and understanding in a world besieged by the great lack thereof.---Carol's time in South Texas and visits to Mexico and Guatemala forged for her a special affinity towards Our Lady of Guadalupe who takes center stage on her canvas."

The Rockport Pilot, Saturday, May 8, 2004 by Sandra Musgrove: "A quiet peacefulness radiates from her eyes, engulfing her entire person-whether she is laughing, is in quiet contemplation or while she is having an animated conversation. The peacefulness could be drawn from a lifelong deeply-held faith or from her visions of everything within her environs- or from both.--------Respected and admired by peers, Carol and her work are savored by art students and patrons alike. -----Her "logo" developed as "Landscape as Sacrament", drawn from her plein air art and spiritual experiences. Regularly she receives awards from international, national, state and local competitions."

The Herald, Thursday, August 22, 2002 by Abel Meza: "She prefers to paint plein-aire rather than being confined to a studio----This affords her the luxury of interacting with her subjects. This intimacy is evident when you become immersed in the spectrum of color and soft alluring edges of her paintings. Her paintings of palm trees evoke the priceless feeling of waking up from an afternoon nap by the water's edge. Carol's strong background in drawing is refreshing. She draws with her brushes. Her direct style of painting complements the air of spontaneity that runs rampart through her paintings."

Corpus Christi Caller Times, Sunday, March 28, 1999 by Ellen Bernstein: "Early in the morning, when the sunlight is soft and hazy with mist, Carol Koutnik paints at an easel at the Rockport fishing docks. Her brush is quick, her paint translucent, as she captures light reflecting off water in a watercolor seascape. She works in a ball cap, long-sleeved shirt and loose pants, surrounded by the tools of a plein-air painter: Paper, brushes, palette, bug spray. Fishermen and early risers stop to talk. They tell her about their experiences, where they live, what boat they take out.---Later in the morning, tourists walk by, stopping to talk about art, how they paint, their medium, their style. Koutnik welcomes the conversation, always refreshing."

Denver Catholic Register, August 19, 1998: "Koutnik is a plein-air painter who likes to be out amongst them in the city. Street people, tourists, delivery men and women and office workers on their breaks often come to look and talk as Koutnik paints. But she considers the school children to be the best and most enthusiastic critics. For Koutnik, art takes place, really, on these streets. Her paintings are a permanent memory of the exuberance felt while watching the changing light, feeling the Spirit at holy places, and enjoying the interchange with all different peoples."

The Denver Post, Friday April 26, 1996 by Steven Rosen: "With a small group of other watercolor devotees, Koutnik will come downtown at about 6:30 a.m. and set up easels in a parking lot. They'll do quick watercolor studies and take photographs of downtown buildings. She'll then return to her studio to work on more detailed watercolors. "You have to concentrate," she says." You only have about an hour where the light stays the same, especially when it's hitting these windows." Her "At Tremont and Broadway," painting is a result of one of those downtown art expeditions. It shows the sunlight hitting Tremont Place's Museum of Western Art in such a way as to turn it a bright, shiny yellow. Just as glowing and warm looking is the curved corner of the Brown Palace. The scene makes downtown Denver look receptive and quiet as it awaits its daily morning crowds."