Karen Sargent is a Canadian painter born and raised in Saskatchewan. She married and lived there with her husband while raising their family. In 2006, they moved to Nanaimo, British Columbia where she knew all her life, she needed to be. After moving to Vancouver Island, she felt the urge to paint and explore her creativity. It was the kind of urge that stayed with her until she started painting in 2011.
Karen is a self-taught artist using acrylic as her medium to create her beautiful realistic landscapes, nature inspired still life, and emotional abstracts. While learning and expanding her ability in each style, she has had to work without the ability to visualize in her mind the image she wanted to portray. The condition, referred to as blind mind's eye, is known as aphantasia. Even with this hurdle she manages to create stunning pieces that have gone on to be featured in galleries, solo shows and win awards. Her painting “Ocean Waves Beckon” won the Award of Excellence at the Sooke Fine Art Show in 2018
Karen strives to convey heartwarming emotions with her art. She depicts the vast and varied beautiful landscapes gifted to us by nature. Her realistic portraits of the West Coast, delicate floral and still life paintings are filled with her passion that can be felt through each detail she soulfully portrays.
She loves painting abstracts but can not force them. Karen often finds herself making her way to her studio to paint one of her seascapes, only to find her next abstract wanting to be painted. She allows her mind to break from detail and let the brush move the paint without restraints. Having aphantasia forces her to connect deep inside her being as she creates her abstracts, painting her emotions at that point in time.
Karen currently has three pieces of her abstract work in featured exhibition, Lost Lines. Her use of colours blending into one another creates moment and emotion. She explains her inspirations and thought process behind her featured work.
“Rhapsody”
Was created while in a space filled with music, drowning out thoughts, allowing the paint to move on the canvas. Using acrylic flow paint, a pallet knife, and other tools, I created the movement and lines on the canvas. This became the subject on the canvas for the viewer to interpret, the notes of emotion, heights of inspired spirit and the blending of sounds. My abstracts come from a place deep within my being, it is a feeling or inner sense that guides me to choose the colours, brushes, or tools to use as I create.
Liberation”
Acrylic ink was dropped on the canvas, and moved with the pallet knife, guided by intuition. When creating without a visual, it becomes emotional as lines start to manifest. This artwork represents changes in life, openings and closing that everyone encounters as they live each segment of their life. The lines represent the constraints of life leaving openings that give way to hope and discover who they really are. Art has liberated my life and given me meaning and happiness.
“Resilience”
An emotional intuitive abstract that was painted in thin layers with acrylic paint. The colours were dragged along the canvas with a pallet knife. Bright and bold colours represent the mountains we climb therein becoming stronger as we maneuver through life, standing the test of time.
Join us in our online gallery for Lost Lines and explore work by Karen Sargent and other local west coast artists. Artwork can be purchased online. For more information on shipping costs etc, please visit https://www.ladysmitharts.ca/onlinegallery
View more work by Karen:
Email: karen.sargent.art@gmail.com
