Karen Gillis Taylor
New
I’m painting a new series going deeper into abstract shapes, light effects, and color transitions. “New Living Garden”, below, is a taste of this exciting exploration… exciting for me! See more in my Botanicals section.
Painting is my response to the wonder of living in the West. Raised in Denver, the changing seasons in the Rockies fed my desire to embrace the richness of color in landscape. There is a deep power in color to tell stories, evoke feelings of mystery, joy or peace, and heighten the sense of drama. People have often told me they want to step into my paintings.
This is especially true with my cityscapes. Some see a town with illuminated streets and buildings… and I think it’s human nature to want to put yourself in that scene, that village. I’m hoping to activate the imagination for this in the viewer. As I paint the village scene, I’m there! The village as a subject, well, it could be many places in our world. I’m sure my travels, beginning as a 20 year old, have surely influenced me for all these years.
After my early years as an illustrator, I decided to return to college as a 29 year old art student and earn my BFA. I developed a passion for mixing color. Now, 40 years later, I often save my mixed colors when the disposable oil palettes are dry.
Before I moved to New Mexico from Colorado, I honed my skills with workshops in Taos and Santa Fe over the years. I moved to Santa Fe in 2018, and now paint full time, showing my work in galleries and exhibitions. The West continues to provide real experiences, and using imagination and color I tell new stories about what our world is and could be.
View Karen’s short video clicking the button below
New Living Garden, 20 x 20” oil on canvas