More About Me

Karen lives in Kenilworth, Warwickshire, and more recently Wareham, Dorset. She grew up in Cambridge. These areas feature in many of her recent paintings, the style of which has been likened to the work of L S Lowry. Karen admits to being influenced by Lowry’s style and particularly his colour palette, which by its limitations offers a subtlety of tone, and subdued hues reflecting the often rather flat, grey English light… but she cannot resist adding colour and joyful life to her own scenes.

There is a cheery feeling of community in the paintings, the aim being to capture something of the character of the place or event. Each scene is filled with observed and imagined incident and activity. Karen removes vehicles from the streets, they are seen as obstructions to her compositions and detract from the beauty of the architecture, often obscuring our view and creating obstacles to the human interaction she so enjoys. We see the streets as we can never normally see them – uncluttered – the buildings in full view, and people wandering across roads devoid of traffic. Karen’s scenes are interpretations of time and place; she plays with perspective, light and colour until she achieves a painting which captures the essense of the subject, there is no attempt at photographic realism. Karen’s ambition is to capture a memory of a scene, one which people recognise with a sense of nostalgia, and she happily shifts buildings slightly to achieve the desired effect.

Karen also paints animals and birds, often using a heavy application of paint and a palette knife. Her storytelling features here too with crowns and clay pipes finding their way into her paintings. Elements of the mystic.

Contact Me

Leave me a message and I'll get back to you as soon as possible!