Karen Tyler Art

Karen Tyler paints domestic interior scenes and abstracted 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 or imagines.  The subjects she paints are all around her, from her home in Northern 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.  

 

Literalism is not a concern for her, but fresh application and spontaneous gesture are.  She creates 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 successful litigating attorney for the federal government while painting on the side.  Making a life choice, Karen left the practice of law and, in the midst of the covid pandemic, became a full-time professional artist doing what she loves.  In December, 2020, she juried into the prestigious Torpedo Factory Art Center in Alexandria, Virginia as a Resident Artist and has not looked back.

 

Karen's work is represented nationally and internationally by art galleries in Washington, D.C., Virginia, Pennsylvania and Madrid, Spain.  She has participated in several group shows in Washington, D.C. and Maryland.  She exhibited at the International Contemporary Art Fair Art3f 2024 in Paris in January, 2024, had a solo show at the Findings Art Gallery in Lynchburg, Virginia in February, 2024, and was in a group exhibition in February, 2024 at the Monat Gallery in Madrid, Spain. Her work can be found in private collections across the United States, as well as in the United Kingdom and Australia.   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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