Artist Karen Remsen
We would like to congratulate Karen Remsen who placed as a Finalist in the 4th Edition.
WHO ARE YOU?
I was born in St. Louis, Missouri. I lived there for most of my childhood and went to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where I studied Graphic Design. After college, I moved to Chicago and have been living there ever since. At the beginning of my career, I was a graphic designer for about five years. For the past six years, I have been working in tech doing UX and Product Design – designing things like software, apps, websites, etc.
When I was young, I was very interested in art. I was drawing or painting pretty much every day. But when I got to college, I decided to take a different path and studied design instead. So, I didn't paint, draw, or do any kind of fine art for almost 15 years.
At the beginning of 2020, I felt the urge to paint again; I don't know why. I just felt like I needed to get a canvas and paint something. When the pandemic started a few months later, I was still working full-time in tech. Suddenly, I had a lot more time on the evenings and weekends. It became an important outlet to do something relaxing and creative.
Over the course of 2020, I grew to love painting again. At the beginning of this year (2021), I decided to leave my full-time job. Currently, I freelance part-time in tech and spend the other half of my time painting.
“Ninth” (Winning work)
Oil on canvas
By Karen Remsen
given your background in graphic design and design and tech, Why did you choose to go into a traditional form of painting, instead of doing digital painting or drawing for example?
I was getting pretty burned out in tech; I felt like I needed a break from thinking about design. I did not want to be spending more time at my computer. Also, when I was young, in the 90s, there wasn't a lot of digital art going on. I had some early versions of Photoshop, but it was very limited back then. So, my background and any experience I had was entirely in traditional methods.
“Balance”
Oil and gold leaf on canvas
By Karen Remsen
what other mediums did you go into besides painting?
When I was young, I tried everything – pencil, pastels, markers, watercolor, acrylic, gouache, you name it. I found that I liked oil best. I like the flexibility of it and how long it takes to dry.
I find it puzzling that people think oil paint is the most challenging medium. I actually think watercolor and acrylic are much more difficult, because they dry so quickly. How do you fix your mistakes? I'm really in awe of artists who can use all kinds of different media well.
With oil paint, I also like how you can use many different techniques. You can paint everything in one layer, or you can do a ton of layers using different mediums. There's a lot of exploration possible.
“Tessellation 1”
Oil on copper panel
By Karen Remsen
I know you said you don't have a big portfolio yet But when it comes to the work you have so far, Do you have any idea of what you want to communicate with that work?
Most of my paintings feature women. I'm still trying to figure out what that means and why exactly I'm drawn to depicting women. I think it has something to do with me working out my experiences as a woman moving through the world. Also, it probably helps me try to understand the experiences I've heard from other women that are completely different from mine. It interests me to explore all the diverse aspects of femininity and what it means to be a woman.
“Athena”
Oil and gold leaf on canvas
By Karen Remsen
specifically, when it comes to the “ninth”, Can you explain to me in detail the inspiration behind it?
"Ninth" is different from everything else in my portfolio and body of work. It obviously does not have a living person depicted in it. I was inspired by a sci-fi novel I read a few years ago called "Gideon the Ninth". I was so impressed with it that I've actually read it again once or twice since. It's completely unique from anything else I've read, and I read a lot of fantasy and sci-fi. One of the recurring motifs in the book is the skull wearing sunglasses. I was drawn to the idea of that image.
I also knew that I wanted to paint something big and very detailed to challenge myself. I wanted to work on my realism technique and train my eyes to see a bit better. That's why I decided to put all the flowers around the skull.
“Demeter”
Oil and gold leaf on canvas
By Karen Remsen
can you walk me through the physical creation of that specific work?
It's pretty uncomplicated. All of it was done in one layer, no glazing or anything. This might sound silly, but it really was just working top left to bottom right.
I used a grid technique, dividing the canvas into two by two inch squares. The canvas is 36x24 inches, so that's 216 squares. As I started painting, each square was taking me about 30-60 minutes. I thought, "this is going to take forever!" It did end up taking over 150 hours to complete. It is the most ambitious painting I've made to date.
“Roses”
Oil on Panel
By Karen Remsen
WHAT PROJECTS ARE YOU CURRENTLY WORKING ON? CAN YOU DISCUSS THEM?
The painting I'm working on now goes back to my usual subject of women. But, it's a bit similar to "Ninth" in that it has a very detailed background – this time, the background is filled with feathers. I don't know why I choose to make these highly detailed compositions that drive me a bit crazy.
With this new painting, I'm taking a new approach with technique. The first layer is rendered in values of brown and gray only, then I am glazing the color overtop. It's a bit more of a traditional technique than "Ninth". Because I don't have formal training in painting and I'm rediscovering it now as an adult, I've had to do a lot of experimentation on which techniques and methods are right for me.
“Royal”
Oil, gold leaf and rhinestones on Panel
By Karen Remsen
So you are essentially attempting to teach yourself. Are there any resources that have been really good for you, when it comes to teaching yourself?
There are a lot of resources available out there. You can search any painting technique on YouTube and get 20+ videos with artists teaching you exactly how to do it.
The manufacturers of the tools I use can also be helpful. I use Gamblin paint and mediums – with the painting I'm working on now, I had a question about what medium I should use for glazing. The folks at Gamblin will let you schedule a call with them to ask anything about using their products. So, I talked to them and they gave me some great explanations and recommendations.
The most helpful thing has been immersing myself back into the art world. I spend a lot of time looking at other artists' work, thinking about how they accomplished something technically, or what their work is saying. When I was young, there was nothing like Instagram where you could easily see the work of thousands of diverse artists with just a few taps. Although there are definitely downsides to social media, I am very grateful that I have this resource so easily accessible.
“Untitled”
Work in progress
By Karen Remsen
I want to ask you about the best advice you've ever heard that I had the best advice that I would, that you've heard from someone?
I haven't had the chance to speak with other artists a lot. However, something I've discovered as an adult returning to the art world is that professional artists seem to develop a really strong and cohesive personal style. Not only in terms of technique, but also in terms of subject matter and imagery. That is really interesting to me. I wonder if artists get bored making the same type of things, but I suppose it must be a matter of finding subjects that interest you so much that you come back to them again and again.
I haven't quite found my signature style yet. I'm still exploring, but over the next year I hope to create a collection of paintings that begin to define my voice as an artist. So, the advice I've given myself is to find what will set me apart and make my work unique, proprietary and personal.
To view more of Karen Remsen’s work