Carolyn Avery was born in Hartford, CT on March 7, 1937 and grew up in rural Granville, MA. She studied art with James McDowell, Charles Haywood, and for 11 years worked from nude models at the George Walter Vincent Smith Museum in Springfield with instructor, Mario Vincenti. Avery spent many of her younger years studying color plates of past masters’ work as she painted to learn how to achieve effects of light and color. 

Avery remembers being fascinated by color right from her coloring book days. She has drawn and painted since early childhood and sums up her beginning:

"I was fortunate in that I was exposed to museum quality art because of Uncle Milton (Avery) and very lucky to have parents who encouraged me in my work. I can remember wondering why Milton’s work was in museums and being so delighted when Mario began to teach me about the integrity of a line and patterns and shapes which can become more important than the object being portrayed – and I began to understand.”

Avery’s work has been included in many juried shows such as the Springfield Art League local and national shows. Juror’s Showcase Display of Springfest in Springfield, Award Shows of WestFest, and the Longmeadow Art Show. She has shown by invitation at the Elms College, Springfield College, American International College Martin Luther King, Jr. Show, and First Church Gallery. 

She has been awarded first prize in oil painting in many shows with the most recent at the Massachusetts Equine Art and Photography show in Northampton, Massachusetts. 

Solo shows have ranged from the Springfield Museum & Liberty Complex to Westfield’s Jasper Rand Museum and Cottage Place Gallery in Ridgewood, NJ; her work has been shown at the George Walter Vincent Smith Museum. 

Avery’s paintings may now be seen seasonally at Shore Road Gallery, 294 Shore Road, Ogunquit, Maine, and at Berkshire Art Gallery, Jennifer Commons, Great Barrington, Massachusetts. She also has shown at Woodland Gallery, Machias, Maine; Cornell Gallery, Springfield; Arlene McDaniel Galleries, Simsbury, Connecticut and many others. Her paintings are included in over 75 private collections in continental United States and Hawaii and Canada.