Carol Harding: Mormon Artist
Carol Pettit Harding is a plein-air painter who focuses on landscape, still life, and figurative oils and pastels.
Harding was born on November 1, 1935, in Pleasant Grove, Utah, and later moved to Salt Lake City with her family. While in elementary school, one of her art works was selected to be part of a student cultural project that was sent to Russia. She sold her first painting to an uncle when she was age 10. At age 13, she won her first national art competition.
She graduated from the Famous Artists’ School of Connecticut in 1965 and studied at the Gloucester, Massachusetts Academy of Art. She taught art classes for fifteen years until she was able to build her art studio, Garden Cabin Studio, next to her home. Since that time she has devoted her time to painting. She also sculpts. She is a member of the Pastel Society of America, the Degas Pastel Society, and the Knickerbocker Artists of New York. She received the Utah Valley University’s “Sharing the Vision” award for outstanding achievement in the Arts.
Her works have been included in noted invitational and juried shows and have won numerous awards, such as purchase awards, best of show, first place, and people’s choice.
Working with Linda Curley Christensen and others, Harding has helped paint murals for several temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, of which she is a member.
