PROEM, 2010 - 2013

“The creation of art is a physical manifestation of complex internal meanderings. Whether the art is two or three dimensional, literary or musical, the completed work is a physical representation of the artists’ inner life. My art practice returns me to what is core about life – it is fundamentally physical.”

Karen’s is a very physical art practise; it is a textural exploration, stretching the boundaries of how she uses her paint. Having studied at the Charlie Sheard Studio School, Karen is well versed in the minutia of mixing paint, using it and constructing a painting on canvas in the manner of the old masters. The strict discipline of stretching, mixing and preparing allows her to then flout convention through her inversions of paint practise. Her work pushes the materiality of paint; plays of paint on paint, thick on thin, thin on thick, wet on wet. Karen employs texture through her work, building layers and form with paint often mixed with finely powered marble or sand.

Karen’s work veers towards an abstracted representation of the physical and natural world. The paintings in this body of work convey a sense of the balance (or imbalance) and rhythm of all things, organic and inorganic. The contrasting textures reflect the conflicting elements of the physical world, the multitude of contrasts and complexities that comprise everyone and everything. Light juxtaposed against colour, texture against smooth surfaces and movement set against deep stillness.

Through this sculptural manifestation of painting a rhythmic and pulsating language of colour and texture has emerged.

Below is a selection of paintings exhibited at Depot Gallery, Waterloo.