Carol McArdle's uses vibrant colors and powerful compositions in her oil and acrylic landscape and wildlife paintings of Natural Florida. They tell the story of her experiences when in the midst of the organic world of nature; the pleasures, respect and centering the outdoors gives her. She uses various painting styles to tell her visual stories, from detailed realism, usually for her bird portraits, to textured and painterly. For each painting she chooses the style she believes will convey her vision of the subject most effectively.
In a very short time since starting her Natural Florida series in 2006 Carol has been invited to have many solo exhibits, her paintings have been winning awards and are being shown and collected around the USA. Some select highlights include her being a finalist in the 2008 International Guild of Realism Annual Juried Exhibition; in the 2009 and 2010 Birds in Art at the Leigh Yawkey Woodsen Art Museum; in the 2009 Paint America Top 200 and in the 2009 Paint the Parks Top 100, which went on tour for a year around the USA . She was also chosen to be the 2008 Resident Artist of Delnor Wiggins State Park, Naples FL.
Carol McArdle was born in Jamaica and then from age 3 grew up in Bristol England. After High School she attended West Surrey College of Art and Design, leaving after about 15 months to became mostly a self taught artist. For a few years she lived a short train ride from London and took advantage of the many Art exhibits there in the National Gallery, British Museum and The Tate. The variety of styles of Art that she was exposed to has always remained with her and her long art career has spanned many art disciplines from graphic design to her present fine art painting.
In 2001 Carol became an American citizen. She lives in Southwest Florida and continues to capture and portray in her paintings what she experiences in the Preserves, State and National Parks and other undisturbed areas of the natural Florida around her.
