Carol Paquet was born in Northern Rhodesia, (now Zambia), of a British father and a South African mother.  She left Northern Rhodesia as a young child just prior to that country’s independence and settled in South Africa in 1963.

Paquet attended the College of Art in Johannesburg where she majored in Graphic Design. This was followed by a career in advertising as an Art Director and during this time she worked in Cape Town and Johannesburg (South Africa), in London (UK) and in Southern California (USA). Her job involved art direction in both print and film and she has won a number of international awards for her work.

She continued her education in the fine arts through privately sponsored programs and while living in Johannesburg, studied etching with William Kentridge  - now an internationally acclaimed artists. Her influences are been Anselm Kiefer, Peter Doig and Kentridge.

Paquet has spent many years living abroad and has traveled widely. Cape Town, Munich, London and Toronto have been her homes as has Oakland, California. She now resides on the Central Coast, California, but Africa remains a continual source of inspiration to her.

I am interested in the intersection between the abstracted landscape and the shape and form of man made structures. I juxtapose these different elements in an attempt to bring to our awareness, the beauty and grace of, for the most part, this random interplay.

I have developed a process whereby the source material is my observation in oil on canvas (a painting) but the ultimate statement and finished product is a digital archival print. I have always been fascinated with shadows and after nearly eight years, have finally developed a way to use these shadows to tell the story that intrigues me.
I employ a photographic process whereby the shadow becomes the interjection of the contradictory element. Man-made versus organic.

The final result is a work on paper, which I hope challenges us to see the beauty in something as random and mundane as a piece of barbed wire littering a field.

• CorkStop Studios “Beyond the Print: Revealed
• San Luis Jet Center March 2009
• Firestone Vineyard. Paso Robles. Oct. 2008
• 9th Annual S.U. National Exhibition. Kauffman Gallery - Shippensburg University. PA . April 2008
• Pink Honda Organic Abstractions. CorkStop Studios, Central Coast. California. May 2008
• Open Studios, CorkStop Studios. Central Coast California. October 2007
• CorkStop Studios - Inaugural Show, Central Coast California. May 2007
• San Luis Obispo Art Center. “Brushstrokes” Juried exhibition.  December 2006
• Esteban Sabar Gallery. Oakland, California. March 2006
• Pro Arts Open Studios, Bay Area, California. June 2005
• "Two Woman Show - Land and Water", Carol Aust and Carol Paquet, March 2005
  Montclair Gallery, Oakland, California
•  "New Visions: Introductions '04" Oakland, California. A juried exhibition of Californian artists. 2004
• Pro Arts Open Studios, Bay Area, California. June 2004
• Group show, Abney Gallery, New York. June 93
• Group show. Musee d’art Moderne de la Commanderie D’unet – Paris, France. 1993

• Tabor Westin Resort in Colorado
• Las Vegas,  Monte Carlo premier suites

• New Times
• The Tribune
• Central Coast Magazine

• San Luis Obispo Art Center
• San Luis Obispo Print Makers