Karen Saunders Art
About
Karen comes quite naturally by her special love of farm life and animals, old barns, the mountains, and all things shore, and you'll often see these themes in her art! While growing up in Maryland, Karen's family traveled often to visit family in rural Virginia. Countless trips to Grandad's farm created a strong familial connection to Virginia's Shenandoah Valley and the Blue Ridge Mountains. Her father hailed from Virginia's Northern Neck and spent a great deal of time hunting, fishing and boating with the family in and around the Chesapeake Bay. She loves the outdoors, reading good books, and trying new things. Karen has spent time living in Virginia, Oregon, and Indiana prior to coming back to her roots to settle on Maryland's Eastern Shore. She likes nothing better than to make others smile when they make a connection with her art!
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Karen has worked in various drawing media as well as watercolor and acrylic before deciding her true love is oils. She's had a life-long love of creating and aside from several years of drawing in high school, has been largely self-taught up through beginning as an oil painter and desiring to take her art to new levels. She is constantly learning as an artist and has gained valuable insight and experience through workshop experiences with Jane Hunt, Colley Whisson, and Joe Paquet. She is also a two-time Plein Air Convention and Expo alumnus and has found the time spent at the 2023 and 2024 conventions in lectures, demos, and facilitated field painting with many of the world's top plein air painters so inspiring that she is attending again in 2025! Plein air painting brings a unique knowledge of life and light that she loves being able to bring into her studio pieces as well.
Along with the honor of having her art purchased by a number of collectors from around the country, Karen's work has recently been awarded several notable honors, including:
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- Top 100 Salon Competition Finalist and an Honorable Mention in the Clouds & Sky category of Plein Air Magazine's Plein Air Salon, for her painting "Morning Drive," pictured below, July 2022 (click to see Karen's painting among the other winners and finalists)
-Best of Show in the Kent Island Federation of Art's "Animals we Love" show for her painting "Lavender Nap," Spring 2024
-Honorable Mentions in the Kent Island Federation of Art's "Animals we Love" show for her paintings "Pirouette" and "Hidden," Spring 2024
-Honorable Mention at The Working Artist Forum's Local Color Show, held in conjunction with Plein Air Easton, judged by Charles Newman, for her painting "Time and Tides," July 2024
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A former classroom teacher, Karen loves teaching as much as she does painting. Her patience and desire to help artists of all ages, coupled with many years of teaching experience, shows in her instruction.
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