Art by Karen Thompson
North East Artist
COMMENTS, TESTIMONIALS & VIDEOS
I will be constantly updating this page as I have many wonderful comments and testimonials from people who appreciate my artwork and I am very grateful that they took the time to tell me so.
Karen Thompson
About me
To combat boredom I joined a little art club in my village of Great Lumley back in 2013, never having done any form of art before and soon developed a love of creating paintings (not all are successful) but all are achieved through a lot of practise and determination. Creating art is a way of leaving home and exploring without actually leaving your seat!
In July 2018 I lost my beautiful Mam. She was my rock and my world and encouraged me with my artwork, sitting with me during every painting I created. I now dedicate every future painting to her by placing the letter 'J' for 'Jenny' on my artwork, I've done this since she died. People seem to enjoy trying to find the 'J' although its not often well hidden!
She is always with me, encouraging me to carry on and I am forever thankful to her.
I primarily work in pastel, as they are odourless and can be manipulated with great ease and speed. Each portrait is an original, inspired by favourite photographs. I feel honoured to be trusted with personal memories in order to create a piece of art that may be treasured for generations to come. Through my art I've met some wonderful people who encourage me daily. I enjoy doing children's portraits and family pets and am very humbled when I am asked to recreate a portrait of a loved one who has passed. The vast majority of portraits I do are done for free, I love the enjoyment created by doing this.
I love working in charcoal which lends itself perfectly to Miners portraits. I've learnt a lot about Mining from the Miners I've encountered and recently visited Caphouse Colliery in Wakefield, West Yorks where I went down into the mine on the underground tour. What an achievement that was!
I am honoured that my mining work can be viewed at the Bob Abley Art Gallery - Spennymoor Town Hall https://www.spennymoor-tc.gov.uk/index.php/art-gallery/ where I am a resident artist alongside Norman Cornish https://normancornish.com/ I am also honoured to have a piece of my artwork hanging in the former family home of Norman Cornish.
I enjoy painting in watercolour ie; flowers and scenes and I have recently started working in Brusho which is a transparent, highly-pigmented watercolour ink and every painting is different and exciting to create. I have a love of poppies and have created several in Brusho.
I am the illustrator for a children's book - The Magical T-Shirt by Adam Bushnel which is available on Amazon. A true story of friendship from The North East of England to the 'Pearl of Africa' Uganda.
I have also illustrated for a book of poems by various artists entitled 'A book of verses to make you smile' to raise funds for Vasculitis.
I also have exhibitions during the year in prominent places with a view to showing my work around the Uk and beyond next year. Please contact me for the details.
I'm a member of 3 art clubs, Houghton Le Spring, Hetton Le Hole and Great Lumley (which I run).
Finally thank you so much for your continued support because without you and
your encouragement I wouldn't be striving to succeed.