Karen Kaysen’s career in art began in the commercial field of textile design. While working in New York City, she sketched riders on the subway and enrolled in classes at the Art Students League. Her sketches turned into prints: etchings, lithographs, and woodcuts exhibited at the Paula Ansel Gallery and the National Arts Club of New York. Kaysen studied at the Art Students League, and simultaneously earned a Master of Fine Art degree in Studio Art from New York University. Lured by the California sunlight, Karen Kaysen moved to the West coast and began painting in oil.

Inspired by the decorative nature of textiles and tapestry, Kaysen embarked on a career in interior scenes and still life painting. The lines of lithography and etching gave way to large masses of color dramatized by the play of light and dark.

Traveling abroad, particularly in cities bordering the Mediterranean, Aegean, and Bosphorus, Kaysen found an abundance of imagery, which captured her imagination. Her landscapes are a medley of shadow against reflective light, of bold abstract shapes against delicately defined renderings. More recently, Kaysen’s travels include India and North Africa, observing and painting women at work in the fields and in the marketplace.

Karen Kaysen received 1st Prize in Oil from the Society of Western Artists 38th Annual Exhibition in San Francisco and has been a featured artist in American Artist magazine. Kaysen‘s work has been purchased by private collectors throughout the United States and has been represented in galleries over the past fifteen years including the following locations.

Permanent Collection
Center for the Study of Health and Risk Behaviors
University of Washington, Seattle, WA

Voshan Gallery
Palo Alto, CA

Powell Street Gallery
San Francisco, CA

Generations Gallery
Yountville, CA

Gallery 1000
Carmel, CA

Panache Gallery
Mendocino, CA

Sayre Strand Gallery
Minneapolis, MN

MJL Impressions
Minneapolis, MN

Huntsman Gallery of Fine Art
Aspen, CO

Knowles Gallery
LaJolla, CA

Design Concepts Gallery
Orleans, MA

Rice-Polak Galleries
Provincetown, MA

© 2006 Karen Kaysen