Karen Beauprie
Beaus Art Studio
913 Georgia St
Key West, FL
847-687-2667
Key West Artist Statement:
Painting has been my lifelong passion allowing me to translate and to understand my environment. During my childhood, I was constantly duplicating images, always working to trust my eye and become true to those subjects in my art. My paintings today are an attempt to find that child again, by letting the movement of the brushes, paint, and water dance across the surface of the paper with control and spontaneity.
Using primarily Arches 140# rough cold press watercolor paper and transparent paints, I attack my subject matter using a loose, geometric, and impressionistic style, always attempting to suggest, rather than render an exact likeness of what I observe in life. My paintings are unlike traditional watercolors in that I use brilliant, fresh colors for my subjects. I constantly work to portray the essence, mood, and character of my images by deliberately planning my composition way before I touch the brush to the paper. I seek to develop the design of each painting through the use of unusual shapes, the relationships of warm and cool colors, and emphasizing the white of the paper against dark contrasts, all with an efficient use of brush strokes.
I love painting architecture because it provides structure to my paintings. Once this is established, I add detailed points of life in the form of soft landscape, animals, vehicles, and people. This creates an interesting dynamic between nature and what man has built creating a constant cycle. Painting on location provides additional challenges that evolve as the piece progresses. Many times my initial plan gives way to improvisation as the environment changes before my eyes. This is when I must allow my original strategies to have options, which is inherent in the paint itself. Watercolor can simply take off on its own, dazzling both the artist and the viewer, revealing discoveries never seen before.