Award-Winning Painting in Artist’s Magazine

“Resolve,” oil on canvas, 36″ x 60,” (c) 2009 Karen Scharer

I am thrilled to announce that my abstract oil painting, “Resolve,” was selected as an Honorable Mention winner in the “Experimental” category of the 2011 Artist’s Magazine Annual Competition.  There were over 700 entries in the Experimental category alone, so being selected as one of only six awards is very exciting, and a real honor.  The painting is a favorite of mine and is part of a series of pieces created during the winter, which is a time of mostly subdued color in the area where I live.  In prior years, I have had three different paintings selected as “Finalists” in the Artist’s Magazine competitions, but this is the first time I have been an award winner.  Yay!  The painting appears in the current (December) issue of Artist’s Magazine which has just appeared on newsstands.

Available at Element in Denver

 

"Grove", oil on canvas, 36" x 36", c. Scharer Fine Art, Inc.

Element is a fun, eclectic collection of furnishings, accessories, and fine art located in downtown Denver.  Great place to visit if you want to find really special items to enliven your living spaces.  They have several of my original paintings on display including “Grove”, pictured here.  If you are in Denver, stop by the store for a visit…you’ll really enjoy it!  They are located at 1426 Larimer Street, downtown.

Still surprised at how much I learned…..

 

This is me with Alyson at the Golden workshop.

I spent the weekend of October 15 and 16 in Golden, Colorado with Alyson Stanfield, the Art Biz Coach and a whole bunch of interesting artists and art business people in the Social Media Immersion workshop.    It was a crash course on the how and why of social media platforms, specifically Facebook, Twitter, and blogging.  I am very new to Twitter, but had previously made attempts – with mixed success – at getting this blog moving and using a business page for my art business on Facebook.  Now I feel like I have enough of a jump start to move ahead with all three.  I’ll still be learning along the way, and I’m quite sure I’ll make some blunders as I try new things.  But the workshop gave me the confidence to dive in….and that’s worth a lot!  For anyone who needs the same boost, Alyson is teaching another Social Media Immersion workshop in Philadelphia on November 5th.  It’s worth your time!

 

 

So Many Ideas, So Little Time!

For some who don’t know me well, my title might sound like a complaint…..it really isn’t. Although I would love to have nothing to do but paint all day, every day, that’s just not realistic.  But I love knowing I will never run out of inspiration for my work. I live in a beautiful place that changes every day…..the light, the color, the vegetation; I know there will always be something new to interpret. This painting was drawn form the subtle, but beautiful, pastel colors of the snowy wetlands near my studio in the middle of the winter last year.  This is “January Wetlands,” 48″ x 30,” oil on canvas, in a private collection.

Denver show opening

This card shows just a sample of the terrific work on display at the http://Studio12Gallery.com Risk & Reward – New Colorado Abstracts show in Denver. The opening reception is this Friday, March 4th from 4 to 9. The gallery is located at 2nd and Kalamath in the Santa Fe Arts District….I will be there…I hope you will too! I had the honor of jurying this show, and it’s a good one!

Just three of the artists showing at Studio 12

Gotta be flexible

I spent most of the morning and afternoon yesterday painting outside next to a lake near my studio. It was a sunny, calm day with temps in the 40s… Pretty glorious for mid-February at 7500′ elevation! Today is a very different story – overnight snow and a biting wind…definitely a day for the studio. Not such a bad alternative, really.

Painting at Rainbow Lake, Feb. 19, 2011

This time for real…..

OK…so the last start on the blog was almost two years ago. I made the first post about two weeks before I was planning to help my Mom move to Estes Park from Salt Lake City….what was I thinking? Anyway, an awful lot has happened since then, and now, in the early days of 2011, I am embarking once again on the journey to explore in words and photos what it is I do in paint. Although I hope the effort will be informative to observers, I fully expect that it will teach me even more.

At last…..

Some time ago I promised - privately to myself, and publicly on my website – that I would start a blog.  My thinking was that it would provide a way to share a view into what drives my paintings,  and that it might replace some of the interaction with viewers of my art that I’ve have missed since I stopped doing outdoor art festivals a couple of years ago.  I plan to post photos of paintings in progress to allow an opportunity to see how my abstract pieces develop, as well as information and photos on other topics that might be of interest….what inspired a particular piece, other talented artists, background info about painting, and hopefully some humor…maybe even pictures of my dog!  Who knows where it all might lead!  I hope it will be interesting enough to provoke comments and interaction, and I hope it might return something of value to all those folks who have honored me by purchasing my work over the years.