KAREN K. PAQUETTE
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Artistic History

​Karen has a passion for pursuing creativity in all aspects of her life.  She has been taking art classes and workshops since 1968 beginning at the Carmel School in Carmel-By-The-Sea, CA and then Callanwolde Fine Art Center in Atlanta studying ceramics. She even squeezed in learning to batik while living on the island of St. Vincent in the West Indies.  She then became interested in fiber arts and was accepted into the Piedmont Art Fair in 1975 with woven fiber sculptures and baskets.  She has a minor in Art from Western Carolina University concentrating on weaving. She practiced the craft of weaving rugs for 10 years, taking after her Scandinavian grandmother’s family whose looms are now in the American Swedish Institute in Mpls. MN. While working on her master’s degree at Western Carolina University she took up the art of papermaking to keep her creative juices flowing.  Her next artistic exploration was in applying paint in textural layers, synthesizing and adapting lessons learned from her many sources. The outcomes on her canvas and paper can evoke impressions of what lies beneath the surface.  

Throughout her years of creating Karen has displayed and sold baskets, rugs, woven shawls, and mixed media works in shops and galleries in Georgia, South and North Carolina.  She has won many awards in art exhibits and has been published three times in "Somerset Studio" an international paper arts magazine and was featured in” Rapid River Arts” and “Asheville Made” magazine.

She celebrates the art of imperfection that is the result of layering paint to achieve a balance of color and texture. Being true to intuitive process, her canvas rarely ends up where it started.

Most of her work explores the natural world inspired by her lifelong enjoyment of the outdoors including water sports, hiking and gardening.  She awaits joyous surprises while working with materials that awaken and excite her creative spirit.

​She has lived in Black Mountain, NC with her husband Douglas since 1997 and actively involved in the Swannanoa Valley Fine Arts League, the Black Mountain Center for the Arts, and Arrowhead Artists and Artisans in Old Fort, NC.
Published in Asheville Made Magazine October 2020
Click here for full Asheville Made Article
Asheville Made Article

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"I celebrate the art of imperfection that is the result of layering paint to achieve a balance of color and texture. My canvas rarely ends up where it started." ​
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Waiting for Answers 16x20
Like Odilon Redon “I await joyous surprises while  working, an awakening of the materials
that I work with and that my spirit develops”. 

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Portion of "Dreaming of a Summer's Day" SOLD
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Reflections of a Summer's Day SOLD
As a mixed-media artist using paint, collage and found objects, I like to explore dimensions of creativity in an intuitive way, giving context to universal concepts, archetypes and cultural traditions.

By drawing on my lifelong experience with ceramics, weaving, basket making, paper-making and painting, I create pieces of art with multi-layer textural effect and design.  I invite you to look beneath the surface and discover the impression of mystery!


  Juried Shows and Awards
  • Piedmont Park Arts Festival
  • Published three times in "Sommerset Studio" an international paper arts magazine. 
  • 2008 Swannanoa Valley Fine Arts League Juried Show at the Black Mountain Center for the Arts. 
  • 2009 SVFAL Juried Show (2nd Place Award)
  • 2010 Juried Show Tryon Painters & Sculptors 
  • 2010 SVFAL Juried Show at the Black Mountain Center for the Arts 
  • 2010 Bascom Gallery Invitational (Higlands NC) 
  • 2011 Bring Us Your Best, Henderson Co Arts Council 
  • 2012 1st Place in Mixed Media, SVFAL 45th Annual  
  • 2012 SVFAL Juried Exhibit at Black Mountain Center for the Arts
  • 2014 Black Mountain Center for the Arts "Art in Bloom" Gallery Show
  • 2016 Arrowhead Gallery "Best in Show" Bring us Your Best.
  • 2016 Black Mountain Center for the Arts "Art in Bloom" Gallery Show
  • 2017 Received Best in Category in WNC regional show!
  • 2020 Arrowhead Juried Show Honorable Mention
  • 2020 Black Mountain Center for the Arts Juried Show​
  • Published in Asheville Made Magazine October 2020
  • 2021 1st Place Mixed Media Arrowhead Juried Show
  • 2023 Best of Show for "Hanging On" Arrowhead Gallery

Art in Bloom Gallery Shows

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2014 Black Mountain Center for the Arts "Art in Bloom" Gallery Show SOLD
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2016 Black Mountain Center for the Arts "Art in Bloom" Gallery Show SOLD


​  Exhibits and Showings
  • Tallulah Gallery in Tallulah Falls, GA
  • Catawba Gallery and Kiln Time in Black Mountain
  • The Aiken Artist Guild, (1st, 2nd and 3rd Place Awards)
  • Aiken Center for the Arts, The Artists' Parlor, The Hitchcock Center and the Etheredge Center at USC Aiken, Aiken Historical Museum
  • The Screen Door in Asheville
  • Art with Heart in Saluda, NC
  • The TAAS Gallery in Old Fort, NC
  • Atelier24 Lexington in Asheville, NC 
  • Tryon Fine Art Center, Tryon, NC 
  • Sourwood Gallery, Black Mountain, NC 
  • Red House Studios and Gallery, Black Mountain NC
  • Black Mountain Center for the Arts  
  • Arrowhead Gallery & Studios, Old Fort NC
  • The Monte Vista Hotel Gallery, Black Mountain, NC
  • The Garden Spot, Art and Crafts Gallery, Fairview NC
  • The Painted Porch Gallery, Black Mountain, NC
PictureBest of 2022 by Karen K. Paquette

Copyright 2013. Karen Paquette. All rights reserved.
Copyright 2013. Karen Paquette. All rights reserved.
  • Home
  • My Galleries
    • Abstract Garden Flora
    • Assemblage
    • Botanical Prints & Arrangements
    • Collage
    • For the Birds
    • The Ephemeral Earth
    • Interpretive Layers
    • Liminal Landscapes
    • Personal Mythology >
      • Personal Mythology - Ancestral
    • Rhapsodies
    • Shapes
    • Thresholds
    • Vessels and Containers
  • Artistic History
  • Available Work and Pricing
  • Links