Karen Tyler Art

Karen Tyler paints domestic interior scenes and abstracted nude figures rendered in strong colors and layered textures. She likes to work large and let her brushwork express her energy and “quick take” on what she sees.  The subjects she paints are all around her, from her home in Virginia to the interiors of friends and family.  All it takes to inspire her is a nook or cranny of a room or the colors in her paint box.  

 

Accuracy is not a concern for her, but fresh application and spontaneous gesture are.  She like soft edges and loose renderings of her subjects.  She oftentimes uses a palette knife instead of a brush to apply her final paint layers to avoid precision and ensure that "perfect is not the enemy of good."  She has chosen acrylic paint as her medium to allow her to layer and juxtapose colors quickly one over another.  

 

Karen's mother, Jean Richardson, is a well-known American acrylic painter who gave Karen a first-hand view of a professional artist's life and provided her valuable instruction in painting.  Although painting has been Karen's passion, it was not her past profession.   She worked for years as a lawyer for the federal government while painting on the side.  Karen left the practice of law to become a full-time professional artist in 2018 and, in 2020, juried into the prestigious Torpedo Factory Art Center in Alexandria, Virginia as a Resident Artist.  Karen's work is represented by art galleries in Washington, D.C.  and Pennsylvania.   She has participated in group shows in Washington, D.C. and Maryland.  Her work can be found in private collections across the United States.  Karen has her own studio where she paints and sells her work on the third floor of the Torpedo Factory Art Center in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia,  Studio 329.

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