Artist Statement
Woods is primarily and oil painter whose subject is a traveler’s view through the window of a moving vehicle. Often, though not always, these views from the front seat show a rain-splattered windshield. The realism in her work stems from a desire to invite the viewer to share the experience. The paintings reclaim the moment, explore its detail, and unearth its emotional content. They are about freezing and compressing time; then elongating and decelerating it. They are also about water: from above, as in a rainstorm, or from below: as in a man-made sprinkler system. Her inspiration is triggered by the interplay of water and light together, and how it affects our perception of reality through reflection, distortion, and transformation. |
Biography
Karen Woods was born in Seattle, WA, in 1963. She received her BFA from the California College of the Arts (Oakland, CA) in 1987 with additional studies at California Polytechnic State University and Studio Art Centers International, Florence, Italy. Her paintings have been exhibited throughout the United States with solo exhibitions in Los Angeles, New York, and Boston, among others, and her work has been published in New American Paintings, American Art Collector, art ltd, Artweek, Western Art & Architecture, Fine Art Connoisseur, and the Idaho Statesmen. Woods’ paintings are included the public collections of the Bodleian Library, Oxford, UK, James Castle House, Boise, ID, Boise Art Museum, Boise, ID (acquisition), Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, Cedar Rapids, IA (acquisition), The Art Museum of Eastern Idaho, Boise State University, Cary Street Partners LLC, Charlotte, NC, and the Boise Visual Chronicle as well as number private collections in the US and UK. Karen Woods lives and works in Boise, Idaho. |