''I wanted to prove that art actually isn't some sort of cultural luxury, it's our food and drink, it's our necessity,'' said Schama. ''Art is a war against dreck.
It actually shows us what our best we can do.'' The Power of Art
 

In high school Karen almost got kicked out of her first painting class!

“But I stuck it out anyway and eventually the teacher asked me to enroll in the advanced art class and I joined the Art Club.  You see, up until then the only painting I’d done was those paint-by-number sets so that’s how I thought people were supposed to paint! I couldn’t break that stay-inside-the-lines habit. Then I had an epiphany while trying to paint a fence post in black and white acrylics.  I finally got it! The paints were supposed to mix together! I like to call that one of my first conscious DUH moments. As I’ve gotten older I seem to have more and more of those each day. I still have that little 8x10 painting to look at it once in awhile. It reminds me that duh moments are okay and are just a part of being human – or an artist.”

In the 1990’s Karen worked as a fellowship student at Crealde School of Art in Winter Park, Florida. At Crealde she learned the importance of working from real-life. She says, “Before this time, all I knew to do was to work from reference photos. This is sometimes still an advantage because I can still use just about any photo as reference material for a painting or drawing!”

Karen enjoys sharing her personal response to subjects and environments through her artwork. Today, she enjoys plein air painting but will always draw and paint her favorite subject - horses.

“Every plein air painting captures the essence of a moment in time and space.  It’s the spontaneity and challenge of capturing that fleeting moment in time that I enjoy the most.  I like to manipulate the light and composition to affect a mood in the viewer by initiating interaction with the painting.”

Karen became enamored of horses as a small child.  No one really knows how or why it started. As soon as she could hold a pencil or crayon she started to draw horses and hasn’t stopped since. Her father is from Tennessee and her mother is from Lima, Peru in South America.  You would think that growing up in Tennessee she would have had plenty of subject matter, but her family moved to Florida when she was eight.  That’s when her exposure to the Florida landscape began.

“My dad used to take us out on long road trips and I remember staring a lot at the beautiful Florida sunsets and storms that would form across the horizon every day.
I remember all the trees and lakes and birds that used to hunt along the sides of the roads. That’s all disappearing now and being replaced by homes and mountain-high landfills. I am saddened to see the Florida landscape crushed so quickly beneath the sole of the human heel and all in the name of so-called progress.”

Karen works as a commissioned artist, offers instruction for private students and offers live demonstrations for interested groups, organizations and businesses. She specializes in equine portraiture, but also enjoys painting and drawing many other subjects and in many different media. Karen is a member of the Central Florida Plein Air Artists and Central Florida Watercolor Society.

“A fusion of classic American art subject matter with a touch of impressionistic technique.” Epiphany

My art by the decade...

The 1980's - The 1990's

1980's

1990's

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