3 minute read
ARTIST KAREN OLIVER Prefer Paper Over Paint
ARTIST KAREN OLIVER Prefer Paper Over Paint
By Joe Motheral
Instead of employing oils, watercolors or acrylics, artist Karen Oliver prefers paper to produce the colorful collages that set her wonderful work apart.
“I use all kinds of paper,” she said. “On this one called Winter View, I did the snow from cookie wrappers. I use tissue, magazines, newspapers, Japanese rice paper and occasionally special things like wasps nests, papyrus, and sometimes I’ll add a butterfly or moth wing.”
She explained that these are pasted onto a “clay board” covered with Masonite and coated with a certain type of clay. “ To me choosing the paper is no different then mixing the right paint color,” she added. “I look for the appropriate color and texture for the image I’m making.”
Equally impressive is the vivid nature of the colors. Many of her images also project her love of landscapes, florals, and waterscapes. And living near Purcellville gives her access to gorgeous subjects and the opportunity to make them come alive.
Because so much of her work is paper, she does not do her collages in plein air.
“I start with either a sketch or photo I’ve taken,” she said. “I try to share the beauty and grace I see in nature or in ordinary life---representational but not necessarily realism prevails in my work.”
Karen has exhibited her paintings in galleries all over Northern Virginia, including at the Artists in Middleburg facility. Others include Art at the Mill in Millwood, Waterford Fair and Piedmont Regional Art Show and Sale in The Plains. Over the years, she’s won numerous awards.
Her trail to using paper to express herself started with her admiration of Vincent Van Gogh.
“I liked the impressionists,” she said, adding that she began with drawings, water colors and pastels. And then, a long ago art class swayed her toward trying collage and it’s been her passion ever since.
In the past, she’s used pastels and said she’s also been dabbling in other mediums, including watercolor. Still, with her long history in collage, that will remain her primary focus with an art form that takes her anywhere from six to 20 hours to complete an image.
How does she decide on her next subject?
“I prefer to ‘paint’ what I know working from my own sketches or photos, mostly of things that mean something to me— nature, people, objects I have a history with.
“After roughly sketching the image on the clay board and deciding on the various papers to use, I cut or tear small pieces of paper and affix them with Elmer’s glue and water to create the image. When the picture is finished, I apply several coats of acrylic medium to protect it.”
The term “collage” has its origins in French, meaning to stick together or glue. And collages can be traced back to the invention of paper by China in 200 BC, and then to 10th Century Japan when calligraphers also began using glued paper to create their images.
During the 15th and 16th centuries in Europe, the technique was often on display in Gothic cathedrals. It evolved further with cubist artists George Braque and Pablo Picasso in the 19th and 20th centuries. And now it’s Karen Oliver’s favorite form of art.
Details: www.karenoliverfineart.com.
