Statement

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.

Welcome to the Karen Pearce site...

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 in 1986.

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.

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, and 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.

Karen now  paints in her studio on the sea front in Aberystwyth and shows her work with galleries in Wales and further a field.  She works as a part time tutor for The University of Wales, Aberystwyth and is a member of fforma, the Aberystwyth based exhibiting collective.

Solo exhibitions

Attic Gallery, Swansea 2006
Ceredigion Museum, Aberystwyth   2005
toko, Aberystwyth  2004
School of Art, Aberystwyth 2003
Old Chapel Gallery, Pembridge 1992,93,95
Clode Gallery, Bridgenorth 1995
Bretton Hall, Wakefield  1994
Aberystwyth Arts Centre  1989,93
Drill Hall, London 1992
Lyric Theatre Gallery, London 1992

Selected Group Exhibitions

Oriel Y Bont Aberystwyth 2006
Oriel Plas Glyn-Y-Weddw, Llanbedrog 2006
Old Chapel Gallery, Pembridge Summer Show 2005
Oriel Theatr Clwyd, Mold: fforma group sho  2005
Attic Gallery, Swansea  2004,05
St. David’s Concert Hall, Foyer Gallery fforma group show   2004                              
Oriel Theatr Mwldan, Cardigan fforma group show  2004
Y Tabernacl, Machynlleth: fforma group show 2003,04
Wales Drawing Biennale 2003,05
National Eisteddfod of Wales, Denbigh  2000
National Botanic Garden of Wales  2000
Millennium Exhibition, Lampeter University  2000