Ken Carlson

Ken Carlson was born in 1937 in Morton, Minnesota. Following art school training, he began his career as a commercial illustrator in Minneapolis. While earning a living as a commercial artist, Carlson devoted his free time to sketching, painting, photographing, and researching his primary interest: wildlife and nature subjects. In 1966, he moved to San Francisco where he spent several more years as a freelance illustrator before putting aside all commercial work to devote his full time to painting wildlife subjects. Carlson moved from California to live for five years in the Rocky Mountains of Montana and now resides in the picturesque Hill Country of central Texas.

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A dedicated conservationist, Carlson participates in several fundraising efforts each year. In 1994, Collectors Covey of Dallas, Texas, published From the Tundra to Texas: The Art of Ken Carlson. Included are more than 100 paintings and sketches, with text by author Tom Davis, who described Carlson’s work as “an eloquent testimony to the fact he has transcended the boundaries of genre painting.”

He was named the Distinguished Wildlife Artist at the 1996 Wildlife Exhibit at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Museum, Wausau, Wisconsin. At the 1999 Prix de West, Carlson was the winner of the Frederic Remington Award. In 2001, and again in 2004, Carlson was the recipient of the Major General and Mrs. Don Pittman Wildlife Award at the Prix de West Invitational Art Exhibition and Sale at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. At the Autry National Center of the American West’s 2008 Masters of the American West Fine Art Exhibition and Sale, Carlson received the first Bob Kuhn Wildlife Award, named in honor of the late premier wildlife artist.

Ken Carlson is represented by Collectors Covey, Dallas, Texas; and Legacy Gallery, Jackson, Wyoming, and Scottsdale, Arizona.