Karen Martin Sampson

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Karen Martin-Sampson

595 Sabre Road

Sayward, BC V0P 1R0

Tel: 250-282-0134

email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

website: www.karenmartinarts.com

OVERVIEW

I have been a CIPA Senior member since its inception (I am one of the founding members).

I accept commissions and currently work in a new studio built two years ago where I also hold classes and workshops, located at the foot of beautiful Mt. H'Kusam.

I was born in Toronto and my family moved to Cleveland, Ohio when I was seven. I have a BFA from The Cleveland Institute of Art and an MFA from Syracuse University. I have been a working professional artist for 40 years and also taught at the college level for some years in upstate NY. I lived and worked in various cities across N. America and am now living on north Vancouver Island.

My work has won various awards and I have been commissioned to paint portraits of children and adults from all walks of life, including municipal leaders. My work is in collections in throughout north America and Europe. I have shown with many galleries including Nan Miller, Rochester, NY, Timm's Gallery, Courtenay, BC, and most recently Lyndia Terre Gallery Nanoose Bay BC, The Comox Vallery Art Gallery in BC, and the Campbell River Art Gallery, BC.

I have been with the Stroke of Genius portrait website and now have my own website. I have had work published in International Artist magazine, The Best of Colored Pencil II and various newspapers; also interviewed for a television program in Brampton, Ontario.

As do most portrait artists, I look for the character and spirit of my subject as well as a physical likeness. There is an underlying fascination with facial expression and body language that prompts an engagement between model and painter that is difficult to define. I find it is important to connect in some way with my subject and get them to relax and trust the process. I paint children quite often and they are often more open but also harder to keep still for a pose!

Every portrait is a challenge that asks for a balance between finding the likeness and producing a work that can stand on its own as a picture that anyone can respond to regardless of whether or not they know the subject. The world is filled with tedious images of long dead ancestors but those which have vitality and beauty live on to inspire for all time.

AWARDS & HONOURS