George Carlson is a man of many dimensions. He is a former illustrator and a reformed ski bum. He is a husband and father, a grandfather and gardener. He also a master artist, who for more than five decades, has been creating works that have earned him worldwide acclaim and countless awards. And yet, he is unpretentious, happily content to pursue the craft that has captivated him since childhood and that continues to excite him.

Born and raised in Illinois, today Carlson and his wife Pam live on 55 acres of land near a lake in Idaho, where four gardens—English, French, Italian, and rose—add breathtaking color to the landscape. He works from a studio a few miles away that at one time served as a Presbyterian church and, later, as a Masonic Temple. The area is reminiscent of southern Wisconsin, where Carlson’s parents owned a cottage and where their young son lived what he describes as a “Huckleberry Finn” life, during summers there.

George Carlson (Idaho)

Secluded Pond
Oil
36″ x 36″

“In this land of many lakes and rivers, there are a number of small, intimate, hidden ponds. I’m drawn to the meditative feeling they evoke.”

George Carlson (Idaho)

Sentinel Bluffs
Oil
36″ x 43″

“It must have been amazing, when a wall of water 1,500 feet deep collided with these hills, caused by the breaking of a glacier 200 miles to the northeast, damming up 400 cubic miles of water, known as the Ancient Lake Missoula.”