Join us for a reception for Karen Boone, featured artist at our Highlands location December 2017-February 2018. Enjoy refreshments and talk with the artist about her work on the Art Wall at our Highlands location.

Karen Boone creates environmentally friendly paintings inspired by nature and backcountry hiking adventures. In 2016, she backpacked in Costa Rica, below the rim of the Grand Canyon, and thru-hiked the John Muir Trail (200 miles) from Yosemite to Mt. Whitney. In 2017, she spent a week hiking in the backcountry of Glacier National Park and a week in the Cascades. She does tiny sketches while in the field, then creates larger pieces back in the studio. Her paintings focus on nature’s powerful colors and energy, often with a figurative quality. She tries to make her art supplies as environmentally friendly as possible. She hand-mixes archival natural pigments (free of fillers, additives, synthetic preservatives, toxins, petroleum-based pigments and heavy metals) with walnut oil for oil paint, or gum arabic, honey and clove oil for watercolors. She stretches her own canvases using organic cotton and plant-based gesso, (free of horse hooves or rabbit skin). She often uses sticks or rocks to move paint on the canvas, a style she call “Wild Brushes.” She has been painting sustainably for over 10 years when she started experimenting with Amish milk paint, so that her painting reflected her minimalist lifestyle. Her hope is to share a love of nature and bring awareness to preserving our planet. 

FREE and open to the public