I can remember collecting pens, pencils, brushes and paints from a very young age, but I never used them, I am not sure exactly why. It was not until 1990 that I went to my very first painting lesson and have not looked back since. Up until a couple of years ago my art echoed who I was as a teacher and business owner not necessarily who I was as an artist. In the past my art reflected my students’ preferences and personalities, decorating trends and a need to full fill what the market place was demanding of a busy Art School trying to make ends meet. Today I still teach to a wide variety of students who have many and varied personalities and painting preferences, however, today I concentrate on what I love to paint not what the market dictates. Recently I have begun to travel to different countries, and I want to share my amazing experiences, sights, sounds and smells with everyone. Painting on location in ancient towns and villages or amazing landscape vistas is my ultimate passion and makes my heart soar. When painting I leave all the daily troubles and life’s difficulties behind leaving me feeling refreshed and invigorated. Equally the mundane is exciting to me, a street scene, boy fishing, kids playing, the everyday life captured forever in art. I especially love painting with watercolours under-painting my pastels allowing them to run and dribble and make their own way allowing the unique marks left behind to intrigue and engage the viewer. I was once asked “what do you like to paint?” My answer was simply “the light”. Light both intrigues and fascinates me, it can be subtle or it can be brilliant. Light gives energy to my painting subjects no matter how simple that subject may be and draws us out from the darkness into it’s caress. It guides us, comforts us and bedazzles our senses. Light gives the universe form, texture and life. It can be a simple light shaft falling on a doorway, the light caressing a child's face or the dappled sunshine descending through the trees in a forest, for me paintings without light has no stimulation of the senses. My passion is working in pastels, however, as a teacher I work and teach in all mediums and love them all. Art makes my heart sing….. Karen