The paintings
Coming soon: Click an image to see a larger version
Plascrug, 2007.
Oil on canvas. 60 × 80 cm.
Aberystwyth, Evening, 2007.
Oil on canvas. 61 × 91 cm.
Rheidol Falls, 2007.
Oil on canvas. 40 × 76 cm.
Upper Falls, Cwm Rheidol, 2007.
Oil on canvas. 90 × 90 cm.
Snowfall, Ponterwyd, 2007.
Oil on canvas. 63 × 93 cm.
Sold
Teifi Pools, 2007.
Oil on canvas. 93 × 117 cm.
£850
Ynyslas, 2007.
Oil on canvas. 60 × 90 cm.
£500
Ystymtuen, 2007.
Oil on canvas. 90 × 90 cm.
Artist's Statement
My work draws on the landscape surrounding my home in Aberystwyth, reinterpreting it with the help of my imagination. I do not produce accurate representations but aim to evoke a sense of personal experience, to create an image which brings together different aspects of the landscape, making it a picture derived from my empathy with a particular place. Using colour and light, a sense of the weather and a love of the materials, I work from notes and sketches made outside, from photographs as well as from memory, trying to recreate the feelings and the mood that the place depicted signifies to me.
Biography
Karen Pearce
Karen Pearce moved from Fiji to Wales as a child during the 1960s, returning to Aberystwyth to raise her own children in 1983. She began to draw and paint shortly afterwards, holding her first solo exhibition in 1986.
In addition to her interest in landscape and the figure she also produced colourful and semi-abstract still life paintings which were published as prints by The Art Group, London. She was encouraged by the sponsorship of Christies Contemporary Art, whose worldwide distribution of these images to companies such as Ikea and Habitat, helped her to gain a national reputation.
Following a desire to study art history and to further develop her drawing and painting skills, Karen started her formal art training at The University of Wales, Aberystwyth in 1998, and was awarded a BA in Fine Art (2001) and a postgraduate MA (2003). During her time as a student she was awarded several prizes for painting including a Royal Academy Landscape Scholarship for travel.
Karen now paints in her studio on the sea front in Aberystwyth and shows her work with galleries in Wales and further a field. She works as a part time tutor for The University of Wales, Aberystwyth and is a member of fforma, the Aberystwyth based exhibiting collective. She is the first honorary member of The Picturemakers.