KAREN BIRCHWOOD - PAINTER

Karen grew up in Kent and completed her degree in printed textiles at Middlesex Polytechnic in North London. Following her degree she worked for one of the leading UK textile design studios, Whiston and Wright. Karen designed both fashion and furnishing fabrics for companies all over the world. Her career as a designer also lead her into ceramic design for the furniture store Habitat, this included a full range of tableware.

Having focused solely on her painting since 2004, Karen’s work draws from her instinctive use of colour, working in acrylic, mixed media and collage either on canvas, board or paper. Karen starts her paintings with washes of colour, building layers using mark making and textures whilst retaining some of the initial brush marks very much responding to her memories and interpreting her reflections in her own unique way. The subject varies from atmospheric abstract landscapes and seascapes to still life paintings. Her background as a textile designer has certainly influenced her style and the way she approaches her work.

Karen is represented by a number of UK galleries and is a selected member and currently Chair of the Rye Society of Artists. She has had work at numerous art exhibitions, including the Affordable Art Fair, Battersea and Hampstead as well as the Society of Women Artists at the Mall Galleries London.