Songbird, 2024

This painting came together in the way I imagine a bird’s song might: part emotional expression, part lived experience viewed through the kaleidoscope of perception in the moment of creation. It frames my joy in light and spacious possibility alongside a beautiful withering to capture a transience as fleeting and tender as birdsong.

Karen came to a painting career later in life, having been a horticulturist, landscape designer and writer of fiction. Karen is primarily a painter on board and canvas, as well as a block and monotype printer. Her subjects are usually nature-based, encompassing landscapes, still life and botanical studies. However, the still life form is a favourite, created from compositions of plants she has grown herself, along with personal objects collected throughout her life. Karen’s art practice provides the imaginative material and scope for varied, self-led explorations in the fields of philosophy, psychology and the study of human nature and connectivity, all of which fascinates the artist.