Karen Conduff
I love the juicy quality of oil paint. I prefer to paint alla prima and play with the textures of thick, wet paint. Color is very important to me, and in recent years, I have chosen to limit myself to three or four tube colors when creating a painting. I love the harmony I get with a limited palette and am always delighted by the extraordinary range of colors I can get, which seems so counterintuitive.
Perhaps because I am neurodivergent, I have never been able to limit myself to one subject matter. I love to paint anything and everything. Usually it’s a color that catches my eye and I just HAVE to paint that, or it’s the way the light falls on an object or a scene.
I split my time painting from life and painting from photos I take. I don’t really have a preference. Each of these approaches has drawbacks and advantages. I would hate to have to choose one over the other. Again – I like to keep my options open!