ARTIST PROFILE

Karen Sargent

Karen Sargent is a Canadian painter born and raised in Saskatchewan. She married and lived there with her husband while raising her family. In 2006, they moved to Nanaimo, British Columbia where she knew all her life, she needed to be. After moving to Vancouver Island, she felt the urge to paint and explore her creativity. It was the kind of urge that stayed with her until she started painting.

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Karen is a self-taught artist using acrylic as her medium to create her beautiful realistic landscapes, nature inspired still life, and emotional abstracts. While learning and expanding her ability in each style, she has had to work without the ability to visualize in her mind the image she wanted to portray.  The condition, referred to as blind mind's eye, is known as aphantasia. Even with this hurdle she manages to create stunning pieces that have gone on to be featured in galleries, solo shows and win awards.  Her painting “Ocean Waves Beckon” won the Award of Excellence at the Sooke Fine Art Show 2018.

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Karen strives to convey heartwarming emotions with her art. She depicts the vast and varied beautiful landscapes gifted to us by nature. Her realistic portraits of the West Coast, delicate floral and still life paintings are filled with her passion and can be felt through each detail she soulfully portrays.

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She loves painting abstracts but can not force them. Karen often finds herself making her way to her studio to paint one of her seascapes, only to find her next abstract wanting to be painted. She allows her mind to break from detail and let the brush move the paint without restraints. Having aphantasia forces her to connect deep inside her being as she creates her abstracts, painting her emotions at that point in time.