Karen is an award winning contemporary still life painter. She has had a lifelong desire to express herself through art beginning with paint by number kits at a very early age which quickly moved outside the lines established by others to creating her own compositions. Although circumstances led her to pursue a very successful first career in education, she always held alive her art interest through classes and workshops. After retiring, Karen and her husband relocated to Scottsdale, AZ. A major decision point for choosing Scottsdale was the art opportunities available of which she has taken full advantage.

Karen began her career as a full time artist in the medium of pastel painting plein air landscapes. She immersed herself in classes and workshops which developed her skills in the basics of art, but she found she was never fully satisfied with her landscape paintings. She is a very organized, detail oriented personality which she realized did not mesh with plein air painting with its constantly changing light forcing quick painting. About that time she was challenged to paint a still life painting...and it opened a whole new world for her as a painter. With still life she found she has complete control over her setup. She can move things around, change the lighting and take all the time she needs to paint the details she so loves to capture. During this transition she also indulged her interest in the medium of oil and fell in love with the depth of color she could achieve using the indirect painting method of multiple layers of translucent paint.

Inspiration for a painting often comes from unexpected places for Karen. It might be the bright colors of a grouping of marbles or the beautiful green of a Granny Smith apple nestled in the folds of matching green and white striped material. Painting still life allows her to create arrangements that transform everyday objects to extraordinary. In considering a still live setup for a painting she strives for bold yet warm colors and lighting that creates strong contrast. She is especially drawn to compositions that include translucency and reflections. She thrives on the challenge of transferring the complex subtleties of the color, texture and light patterns of the composition before her onto a two dimensional surface resulting in a painting that looks as real as the setup itself.

National Oil and Acrylic Painters’ Society – Signature Member
Oil Painters of America – Signature Member
International Guild of Realism – Juried Member
International Association of Pastel Societies – Master Circle Member
Pastel Society of America – Signature Member
Arizona Pastel Artists Association – Signature Member

You can visit Karen's website to view more of her work here.