ABOUT KAREN
Growing up on the east coast of Yorkshire as a happy beachcomber I was attracted to paint-peeling wooden boats, gaudy plastic scraps and brightly coloured fishing floats. As a child I was free to wander, explore and collect. It is these boatyard memories that have become my subject and endless inspiration.
At Art College I was immediately draw to the dense flat colours of silk screen printing, for which I received a commendation. It was on a travel scholarship that I saw Matisse’s cut-outs for the first time; it was the scale of his work, the intensity, the pin holes, crease lines and torn edges that fired my imagination.
Whilst secondary school teaching I developed my collage work. I combine found papers with layers of painted paper and water-based paint to create an integrated surface. This is constructed and deconstructed many times; scratched, sanded, repainted, recut, until a patchwork of urban marks and worn surfaces bond together. As this collage work has developed it has become increasingly physical, moving from paper to wooden panels.
I am based in Cambridge UK. I have exhibited with with &Gallery, ING Discerning Eye, Bankside Gallery, The Society of Women Artists (twice winning Body of Work Prize). Contemporary Collage Magazine prize winner 2023. Jackson’s Art Prize Longlist (2024). No Place Art - Materiality 2 (2026)
ABOUT MY WORK
My work is very much process led, I construct and deconstruct with layers of paper and paint to make irregular shaped abstract collage paintings. I continue to take my inspiration from the worn and once loved, the humble detritus already marked with the passing of time. I am drawn to traces left behind by time and human hands, the unintentional marks that speak of practical fixing. The physicality of layering, cutting, distressing, dissembling becomes integral to each of my composition’s character and personality. But, increasingly I feel, as I layer up and strip back, I am exploring more about how much we patch and conceal the stories in our lives.
The more I work, the more stripped back and dynamic the compositions become. Each piece becomes cheekier and more defiant; they jutt and spill out of the frame: expanding shapes, stretching, reaching, teetering, balancing. The functional character of house paint, together with the creases, folds, wrinkles and many edges of paper delivers a new vocabulary of exciting shapes, edges and surfaces. Compositions become punchier: each kink, curve and accidental blemish accentuated and celebrated in its own right. Flat colour abutts a dribbly paint stick. Multiple panels intersect and animate the work; small quirky groupings of irregular pieces engage in vivid conversations with one another.
Far from being pretty and neat, this work is gobby and loud – the maverick in the corner! It represent an exciting new stage of my collage paintings that is rooted in my previous work. Acknowledging their roots in the gritty practical life of the boatyard, these pieces are boldly unconventional, surprising and playful.
