Karen Sherwood

I am a landscape painter strongly influenced by Turner and the dramatic Northumberland coast. . I paint in oil and am well known for my distinctive use of blue.

I studied fine art at Sheffield Hallam and graduated in 1990. I established Cupola Gallery in 1991 and have run it every since. My own painting took a back seat for many years but back in 2012 a customer offered a stay in their caravan in Seahouses on the north east coast and that kickstarted my love of painting and the landscape again. My work initially was strongly topographical but more recently has moved away from depictions of place to a more personal response. My work is now processed base and each image develops from an abstract base, working slowly over many weeks before a final image emerges. Blue has been a dominate colour for a number of years but slowly other colours are creeping into my palette. I am drawn very strongly to the sea as all my paintings end up depicting the sea or a coast, a bay, an inlet or shore. Heavy and dramatic skies feature prominently too. I hope my paintings evoke an emotional response in the viewer.