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Karen Pearce |
| Karen Pearce moved from Fiji
to Wales as a child during the 1960s, returning to Aberystwyth
to raise her own children in 1983. She began to draw and
paint shortly afterwards, holding her first solo exhibition
at Abergavenny Arts Centre in 1986. She has since exhibited
widely. |
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| In addition to her
interest in landscape and the figure she also produced colourful
and semi-abstract still life paintings which were published
as prints by The Art Group, London. She was encouraged by
the sponsorship of Christies Contemporary Art, whose worldwide
distribution of these images to companies such as Ikea and
Habitat, helped her to gain a national reputation. |
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| Following a desire
to study art history and to further develop her drawing and
painting skills, Karen started her formal art training at
The University of Wales, Aberystwyth in 1998. Here she was
awarded a BA in Fine Art (2001) and a postgraduate MA (2003).
During her time as a student she was awarded several prizes
for painting including a Royal Academy Landscape Scholarship
for travel. |
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| Karen now paints
in her studio on the sea front in Aberystwyth and shows her
work with galleries in Wales and further afield. She works
as a part time tutor for The University of Wales, Aberystwyth
and is a member of fforma, the Aberystwyth based exhibiting
collective. |
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| "My work draws
on the landscape surrounding my home in Aberystwyth, reinterpreting
it with the help of my imagination. I do not produce accurate
representations but aim to evoke a sense of personal experience,
to create an image which brings together different aspects
of the landscape, making it a picture derived from my empathy
with a particular place. Using colour and light, a sense of
the weather and a love of the materials, I work from notes
and sketches made outside, from photographs as well as from
memory, trying to recreate the feelings and the mood that
the place depicted signifies to me." |
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