Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Artist Spotlight: Karen Sloan with Whimsical Paintings
















We are pleased to welcome Karen Sloan of Haliburton County to Tay River Gallery this summer. Karen's delightful paintings of interiors add marvelously to the sizzle of our summer-themed show, "Summer Sizzle", and feature strong colours, pure themes, and expressive form. Since her move from Toronto to the Minden area, Karen has been painting fulltime, her whimsical and somewhat surrealistic acrylic paintings. Interiors and jazz themes are her main attraction, but music and colours are her muses. Karen provides a theatrical and almost voyeuristic point of view in her interpretation. In her artist statement, Karen writes "most clients who have purchased these see them as optimistic paintings, and that’s true for the most part, however, others feel that they are metaphors with an edgy sense of apprehension. It’s as if something is about to happen, like the calm before the storm. This is a real juxtaposition that I quite enjoy.The bottom line is that my style has evolved through my aim to capture or translate visually, items and themes that I am personally fascinated with, in the way that they seem to vibrate and appear to jump off the canvas, with an almost a 3 dimensional quality.The paintings are somewhat intense, highly colourful, theatrical, and contain my own blend of humour. "
Internationally, her work is collected across the USA, the UK, Australia, Holland, Mexico, the Bahamas, Switzerland, and South Africa. The folk at Tay River Gallery are enjoying Karen's zany view. Lightheartedness is refreshing - methinks we take ourselves far too seriously as we go about our lives. Carefree summer days are here!

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