About The Artist

Carmen Tomé was born in Beira Baixa, Portugal and moved to the Okanagan with her family when she was eight. Revealing an aptitude for art early on, she won a few drawing awards throughout school. Upon graduation from High School in Oliver, BC, Carmen won the Textiles & Clothing Design Award and an Academic Award among other honors. She went on to study at Emily Carr University of Art & Design in Vancouver. Catching the photography bug in 1993, she immediately delved into creating unique photographic images, winning awards and booking a one woman gallery exhibition within months of buying a camera. Freelancing out of Langley, BC, her photographic work took her all over Canada, the States and internationally with the emphasis on Lifestyle & Promotional Portraiture, Photographic Illustration and Fine Art Photography which sold privately and through many Galleries. Alongside freelance photography, the passion to paint again arose in recent years and became more of a focus as time went on. Moving to Oliver in the Spring of 2011 marked a time of returning to her roots and sealed the transition into painting. Being an artist who has been described as a mad scientist, Carmen enjoys expressing with a diversity of many mediums as something new emerges in the flow. Going with the stream of conciousness she creates paintings ( realism and impressionism) using mixed media in any variation of acrylics, oils, coloured pencils, graphite pencils, inks, pastels and watercolors along with marble dust, gold and silver foils, papier mache, plasters, portland cement, epoxies, metals, earth colors, stones, and anything else that captivates her. Exhibitions, one woman and group, of her art and photography in Galleries and other Venues include Langley, Vancouver, Whistler, White Rock, Abbotsford, Kelowna, Harrison Hot Springs, Bowen Island, Vancouver Island, Quebec, Winnipeg, Toronto, Calgary, Seattle and Lloyd’s Gallery in Penticton. Presently, in Oliver, BC, her art is represented by the Quinta Ferreira Estate Winery (a one woman permanent exhibition) and also at the Oliver Art Gallery, an artist’s cooperative gallery where she is a core member. Carmen’s art awards include b&w realism drawings, acrylic quilted paintings, and over 40 in photography. She won ‘Photographer of the Year’ three times provincially with PPABC and ‘Commercial Photographer of the Year’ three times nationally with PPOC, along with being runner up multiple times. As well, she has won First in Class Awards in ‘Fine Art Photography’, ‘Pictorial’,‘ Portrait of a Group’, ‘Portrait of a Man’, ‘Portrait of an Animal’, ‘Photographic Illustration’, ‘Wedding Portrait’, ‘Industrial’, ‘Scenic’, and ‘Unclassified’. She also received nine Kodak Gallery Awards, three Fuji Masterpiece Awards, a Nikon Award and many Honourable Mentions.