"Evening Flight" Painting

"What motivates an artist to spend hour upon day, month or year creating paintings, whether or not there is an expectation for financial reward or even recognition? I believe it is curiosity, the need to see what the heart will create because even when painting from a scene or photo the end result will always touch even the artist in unexpected ways. It never ceases to amaze how a creation takes on a life separate from its creators consciousness, because once the form is in place it evolves from the heart . The artist, not unlike the new parent, looks upon a blank canvas and is inspired, what will this creation be? What will I discover. How will it touch others.

As a child Karen had plenty of artistic inspiration. Karen’s grandfather studied under Frederick Varley (Group of Seven). Growing up surrounded by Varley’s oil sketches and her own grandfathers water colours gave her a sense of an art community larger than herself . At age ten Karen’s sketch of a squirrel drew the attention of a children’s TV show and she was chosen to exhibit her work on TV. Summers at Long Point, an idyllic time, were spent with another artist Sylvia Knowles, who would spend her days painting and was a huge inspiration to Karen as a budding artist.

Karen Studied art and design at the Ontario College of Art (now OCAD), and graphic design at the International Academy of Design. Throughout the years while raising her children Karen was art director of “ Health Magazine, and wrote and illustrated a children’s book based on Long Point, Lake Erie, “ Owen Bedoin the Star of Port Rowan”. Throughout her life, whether creating art or designing living spaces, creativity was the motivation within all her involvements. In the past decade Karen has been exploring various styles predominantly in oils.
Karen currently lives in Port Dover and draws much of her inspiration from her local environment in and around Port Dover as well as from her time spent in Collingwood and world travels.”