Connor has always had a creative touch, even in childhood. Her parents had lots of coloring books around, and Connor would practice staying in the lines of the drawings. When she was young, she would sit by herself in the living room, tracing shapes and shadows like the drapes, and the window trimming, with her eyes, paying particular attention to the way the drapes would curve and turn, and the different shadows of color that were created. This gave Connor a calming sensation.

Connor was compelled to attempt her first portrait when she was in junior high school. The portraits were of two guys she thought were cute and she used their school pictures as a guide. It didn't turn out as well as she hoped but was not terrible. Throughout high school Connor took a long hiatus from drawing, focused on getting a part-time job and schoolwork.

University was where her desire to create was reignited when there was an art print sale. She was so inspired by the artwork that she picked up her pencil and started drawing again. A year following that, Connor saw an ad for art classes at a Farmer’s market in her hometown and signed up. she took lessons once a week for several years to hone her skills as a drawer/inker. Her teacher then encouraged her to add color, to try painting and she was hooked! The colors, vibrancy, and detail that can be created through painting had her in awe.

Over the years, Connor has painted from her home studio. She is very comfortable with acrylic paint and has also done a few oil paintings. She has learned to appreciate the time it takes to add detail to a painting to make it realistic and will spend countless hours on a single painting to accomplish her goals.

Connor's most recent paintings have incredible detail and that's just how she likes it!

Her goal in painting is to create pieces of art that make people stop, to notice the details, to capture a special memory or person and to inspire people to go out and enjoy all the beauty and health nature has to offer.

Connor is inspired to create paintings that display the boldness and beauty in nature and animals, to paint the details in an eye, of fur, of feathers. She is also attracted to featuring single objects in different backgrounds, such as a pair of rainboots in the middle of a street or a boat at a pier and also enjoys painting portions of objects at different angles, like the front of a kayak with a coffee cup in it so people can imagine themselves in those places, doing those same things.

A selling artist, Karen Connor, appreciates the small details in life and uses those details to breathe realism into her art. Precision is the name of her game and Connor has over 25 years’ experience perfecting her craft. The greater the detail, the greater her satisfaction is, in her work. No detail is overlooked, the lines on the petals of a flower, the light that hits an eye, a piece of hair or fur, are all placed meticulously to make her paintings as real as possible.

From a young age, Connor examined how light, and shadows created different effects on various subjects, such as the light coming in through a window touching sections of the floor, the curtains, the furniture or parts of a body if someone was in the room. She would follow patterns and shapes, with her eyes, that appeared on vinyl flooring and see shapes and cartoons, like caricatures, the same as when you look at the clouds.

Connor was always interested in color, and when she was a child, she would try all the shades of one color, in a big box of Crayola crayons, to discover the subtle visual differences between each shade. This skill, learned many years ago, helps her mix many shades of similar paint colors today, to create beautiful effects in her paintings.

In a world that sometimes seems bleak, getting lost in a piece of art can inspire you to do anything.

https://www.karenconnorauthorartist.ca/

Aug 9 Karen Connor

Aug 9 Emma Coyle

Aug 9 Rebeccah Klodt