Karlene McConnell is an American artist living in Florida. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Art Education from the University of Central Florida in 1983. She is a former special education art teacher and museum curator. Her work has been exhibited in solo and group shows from New England to the Miami art fairs. Her art is included in several corporate and private collections including Memorial /Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, NY and the permanent Lemerand Collection at Daytona State College, FL.

Karlene explores memories and perceptions of the natural world through her colorful, gestural paintings. She uses shapes and lines to mimic organic forms found in nature, playing with positive and negative space and layers of paint to build up a sense of atmosphere on a flat plane. Her work is also fueled by bursts of color. While not true to life, her palette creates a conversation between cool and warm tones and serves to energize her compositions.