Left High and Dry

Karen Richardson is a professional fine artist, with an art studio overlooking peaceful farm fields in Lindsay, ON. Travels by RV, motorcycle, snowmobile, and kayak throughout Canada inspire her watercolour landscapes, which focus on dramatic northern lakes, trees, rocks, and skies. Her goal is to give viewers the sense of ‘being there’. Karen also loves to garden, and many of the flowers she grows appear in her paintings.

While she has worked in watercolour for 35+ years and has developed a certain ease with this medium, Karen constantly discovers new ways of manipulating pigment and water on paper. Her commitment to quality and innovation lead to embracing a new type of mounting and framing over a decade ago. Instead of presenting her paintings with mats and glass in traditional frames, she mounts her artwork on archival wood panels, protected with many coats of varnish and black floater frames. This modern approach gives a more contemporary look to her paintings, while protecting them from light and humidity, and allows them to be enjoyed without the glare and weight of glass.

Karen taught watercolour workshops to adults for fifteen years and from this frontline experience wrote and published Watercolour Toolbox: Essentials for Painting Success. This award-winning art instruction book summarizes much of the advice and guidance she shared with students in her workshops.

Throughout the year, Karen’s artwork is available at art galleries in Fenelon Falls, Port Perry, and Huntsville. Visit her web site www.karenrichardson.ca for a full listing of paintings, future art shows, as well as painting tips and travel stories.

From time to time, I need to escape the busy pace of daily life and immerse myself in the solitude of Nature. Having grown up near Algonquin Park, I have a soul-deep connection to peaceful northern lakes, vast forests, and fresh air.

My artwork is forged from an elemental impulse to portray that timeless bond so other people, wherever they may be, can share in the wonder of it.

Often, I discover such vistas while exploring new horizons with my husband, by RV, snowmobile, motorcycle, ATV, or kayak. As I witness the wonder of the natural world, I capture intriguing images with my camera, and later create watercolour paintings in my studio, usually combining several photographs to compose each artwork.

I want people to feel utterly captivated by my paintings of wondrously untamed places that capture our hearts and ignite our imagination.

Whatever the source of my inspiration, I strive to share in my paintings the quiet moments of heartfelt awe and wonder that I feel in Nature. I use true-to-life colours, crisp detail, and dramatic lighting effects, to give the sense of ‘being there'.

If my paintings make you pause, take a slow breath, and smile, I know I have accomplished my artistic mission: to make the world a happier place… one painting at a time.”