Meet the Artist

Painting in Roussillon

In Ponce Studio

Karen’s  journey as a painter began as a young child in Chicago when her art teacher in elementary school took her class into the neighborhood.  Sketching the nearby factory was her first experience of seeing line and light.  It shaped her interest in the urban scene.  Other interests dominated her attention in mid-life.  But in retirement, she decided to become serious about painting.  Karen prefers to work in the studio but also paints en plein air  in Chicago, across the U.S., and at workshops in Provence, Tuscany, and Ireland.

She is drawn to the wonder of nature and contours of the city.  Her landscapes reveal her sense of awe at nature’s creations.  Her cityscapes reflect her attraction to the pull of opposites–skies and skyscrapers, clouds and cranes, rivers and reflections of buildings, roads, and rock formations.   She paints what touches her heart or simmers in her imagination until it demands expression.    Her recent work includes 17 paintings inspired by the life and work of American novelist Willa Cather.

Ponce Wednesday Group

Every Wednesday she can be found at the Ponce Studio in Chicago.  Here with a group of other artists whose different paths all led to Ann Ponce, she continues to practice the art of seeing.

Karen’s oils and watercolors have been shown locally at the Albany Park Library, the Old Town Art Center, the New Studio, the North Shore Art League, at juried group exhibitions of the National Oil and Acrylic Painters’ Society and the Oil Painters of American, and at the National Willa Cather Center’s Gallery in Red Cloud, Nebraska.   She is a member of the Chicago Alliance of Visual Artists, the National Oil & Acrylic Painters’ Society, the North Shore Art League,  the Old Town Art Center, and American Women Artists.

The artists with whom she has studied inspire her continued pursuit:   oil painters Kathleen Newman,  Didier Nolet,  Joyce Ortner,  Ann Ponce, and watercolorists Ingrid Albrecht, Bill Bartelt, and Evelyn Dunphy.  Some of these artists–Dunphy, Newman, Nolet, and Ortner–share a deep appreciation for the wonders of the natural world and the power of imagination. Others–Albrecht and Bartelt— find the rich textures of the urban scene inform their work.  Still others–Ponce–see the face and body as a human landscape.  All practice seeing and re-creating the radiance of life for their own and others enjoyment.  Their work along with that of Emily Carr, Lockwood deForest, Edward Hopper, Andrew Wyeth, the Hudson River and Ashcan artists influences her work.