Artworks by Karen Rieger

The Essence of Landscape...

My childhood summers were filled with weekend explorations of the countryside. These early road trips fed my internal visual archive. Viewed from the car window, an ever-changing vista rolled before my eyes.

Walks through woods immersed me in dark shadows where rays of glinting light pushed their way between boughs, dappling the forest floor, luminous and redolent of earth.

In this landscape series, I’ve painted scenes inspired by both the countryside and the city’s verdant backyards, all filtered through imagination and an emotional response translated into lively brushstrokes and an abundance of colour.

Impasto strokes of acrylic are laid upon watercolour like underglazes and the charcoal marks of the initial drawing are sometimes revealed.

The paintings depict the energetic essence of landscape and capture the passion for the natural world that I was introduced to as a child, that held a kind of magic and an ethereal quality that still resonate strongly within me.

Figures and Flora:

Colour is of prime importance in my work, evoking mood, sensuality and a sense of beauty.

My paintings are a rich pastiche comprised of diverse inspirations such as the post-impressionist movement of the 19th century; European textile patterns and sources derived from my immediate environment. A dialogue between my imagination and the past informs the work.

The faces come from my imagination, the features generalized to suggest universality rather than a specific person. Inspiration for the still life paintings may come from a bouquet on my table, or many times they simply emerge luxuriantly and fully formed onto the canvas.