Karen is a contemporary portrait and figurative artist.

Her portraits include all people, often with pets or other precious items and in real settings.  They are colourful, with a powerful composition and often with an architectural / interior emphasis. Having trained as an Interior Architect, she is fascinated by composition, perspective, light and creating innovative ways to paint a contemporary portrait using the traditional painting method. Her portraits capture a moment in time and are often striking, playful and always original.

Her paintings are carefully drawn from life or from photo references. She usually starts with a series of pencil sketches, or alla prima oil studies before transferring the final drawing to linen canvas. The drawing is then worked into a grisaille to work out the values before oil colour is finally applied.

Karen studied Art at Batley School of Art, Portraiture at Studio Escalier in Montmartre, Paris, Portraiture at Charles H. Cecil Studios, Florence and Interior Architecture at the Metropolitan University of Manchester and works from her studio in Arras, France where she also holds painting and drawing workshops.

After having worked for international architectural practices traveling extensively around South East Asia (notably Hong Kong on award winning projects) she returned to full time painting mid 2019. Since, she has exhibited with Society of Graphic Fine Art, Royal Society of British Artists, Society of Women Artists, New Light Prize, Royal Birmingham Society of Artists, has participated with Portraits for Hero’s, is a Holly Bush Emerging Woman Painter Prize winner 2022 and has proudly been elected Associate Member of the SGFA