• 4 years ago
Colour in Your Life featured artist Karen Bloomfield appeared on Colour In Your Life Season Twenty One (21).

Read a little bit about the artist here, and support our site by joining and watching the episode below.

Karen Bloomfield currently lives on the beautiful NSW Central Coast of Australia, and works from a tiny rented studio in the bayside suburb of Killcare. Having completed her Diploma of Fine Art from the Newcastle Art School at the end of 2014, it is hard to believe this prolific artist began learning her trade at 40.

When asked about her artistic predilections, Bloomfield recalls early memories “of being 3 or 4 years old and drawing my surrounds in a doctors waiting room. I guess at a time when the other children were doing stick figures, it may have been an oddity to be drawing graphical representations of internal architecture!”

“My mother wanted to funnel my creativity into pragmatic pursuits – like architecture – and insisted that I study technical drawing & engineering science.”

Two children, several businesses, a ‘tree-change’, and another foray into corporate life, and finally the penny dropped. “I was about to turn 40, the age my mother was when she died, and I just lost the plot. I had done nothing for myself. I put everything on the line and so, along with 90 other hopefuls attended a mass interview for 18 positions in a Cert III Fine Art course. I secured a spot and never looked back.”

Five years later, the art that Karen Bloomfield makes is clearly infused with her life experiences. Her signature charcoal portraits are a fusion of emotion and draughting skill. Many of Bloomfield’s works explore the shadows and angles of urban cityscapes, the architecture of humanity and our place amongst it.

‘I draw upon and about truth. So much of my life, both as a child and adult was lived in a veil of half-truths, and so I am mostly inspired by and interested in the truth of my subject regardless of whether that is pretty or not.’

You can contact Karen about her art tips or art techniques directly via her website at karenbloomfieldart.com