Karen O’Brien Cahill is a native of Salem, NH. She painted her first oil portrait at the tender young age of 11 years old. She became the youngest member of the local Salem Art Association.

Transplanted to the West Coast of Northern California, she continued her art education attending St. Mary’s College, Moraga, CA and studied under Prof. Roy Schmaltz. She received her B. A. degree in Art and in English from SMC in1976. She later went back to St. Mary’s for her teaching credential. She had been teaching children throughout Northern California and in some classrooms has reinstituted art education back into the public school system.

She began her art career in the early 1980’s doing portraits on commission and entering many art shows and competitions in the San Francisco Bay Area, California, and winning numerous awards.

In 2004, she and her husband and family moved to Mendocino where she devotes her time to her painting and expanding her art career.

She is currently a member of The Portrait Society of America, The Mendocino Portrait Guild, The Mendocino Figure Drawing Collective and the Mendocino Art Center.

You can view her work at the following websites:
Mendocino Figure Drawing Collective
Mendocino Portrait Guild