Karen Tyler
Contemporary Acrylic Paintings
"Never ruin a good painting with the truth" Henri Matisse. The Goldfish bowl (1921-22)
I want my work to make you feel more than think.
In an increasingly turbulent world, I choose to create paintings that invoke both feelings of serenity and the vibrancy of daily life. My abstracted interior scenes and nude figures are simple, relatable, everyday subjects that reflect the intimacy and comfort of home. I add vibrancy to these simple subjects with texture, pattern, expressive gesture and my color choices. My abstract underpaintings peek through the final paint layers in varying degrees, imbuing a sense of energy, movement, and depth to otherwise still or quiet subjects.
I feel a constant push and pull between the real and the abstract. The abstract elements compete and contrast with the quiet realism of my central subject, rendering more complex that which is simple. Henri Matisse purportedly once cautioned: "Never ruin a good painting with the truth." Embracing this wisdom, I do not concern myself with literalism, focusing instead on fresh application and spontaneous gesture to add new dimensions to the intimate scenes I depict. The "truth" in any of my paintings is limited only by one’s imagination.
I invite you to scroll through my available and archived paintings to experience my dynamic and ebullient work.
My Process
I usually approach the start of a painting by focusing on the application of texture, my color choices, and the creation of an intuitive abstract painting. Those initial abstract paint layers serve as an underpainting which inspires my final decisions as to my subject-matter and composition. By using a palette knife over layered texture and applying transparent colors over some of my initial paint layers, I allow my abstract layers to show through in varying degrees in each of my paintings.