Carrie in her studio 2020.

Carrie Penley is a Georgia-based artist known for her mixed media paintings that layer realism with narrative.

Raised in Carrollton, she studied at the University of Georgia and began her career in interiors under designers Dan Carithers and Dotty Travis before founding her full-time studio in 2012. Her work explores the American West as both landscape and symbol, a meditation on resilience, memory, and spirit. Beneath each brushstroke lies history: aged sheet music, weathered paper, and fragments of story. Whether depicting wildlife or music icons, Carrie’s art honors what endures: the beauty of nature, the courage of individuality, and the timeless rhythm of the land.

“My work is a contemporary interpretation of the American West—an excavation of its layered spirit, where landscape, memory, and wildlife converge.”

— carrie penley

A living room corner with a dark wooden cabinet, glass doors, and a black and white butterfly artwork hanging above. Two matching brass table lamps with cream shades sit on the cabinet. To the right, there's a decorative wooden chair with a white cushion and intricate carved details, set against a white paneled wall.

b. 1973

Grew up in Carrollton, Georgia

Painting of a majestic elk with large antlers, standing in a natural setting with abstract background in earth tones.

1995

Graduated from The University of Georgia, Athens, GA

Carrie Penley and her daughter Abbey, also a Penley family artist, in Santa Fe at an art gallery with Carrie Penley's contemporary western paintings.

1996

BEGAN INTERIOR DESIGN TUTELAGE UNDER DAN CARITHERS AND DOTTY TRAVIS

The most famous barn in America, T.A. Moulten Barn with the majestic Grand Teton mountain range in the background photographed by Lyall Penley, another Penley family artist.

2012

ESTABLISHED FULL-TIME STUDIO AND BEGAN AND BEGAN SHOWING HER WORK PUBLICLY

Carrie Penley artist standing by her contemporary western mixed media paintings at the art gallery, Gallery Wild, in Jackson Hole.