Karen van de Graaf
Karen van de Graaf is a specialist in portraiture of both people and animals. Her mission is to spread joy through her art, focusing on colour, texture and patterns, which is why she enjoys collage as well as drawing and painting. Thanks to her experience as a portrait artist, both as a regular at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and through commissions, her artworks hang on walls around the world.
Karen trained in Edinburgh, through both practical tuition and drawing performance, working from live models. She studied with a teacher in Edinburgh for five years, attended weekly portrait painting classes, learning to use oil paints and to play with colour and pattern. She can really capture her sitter’s personality, not least because she spent nine summers drawing faces in the street entertaining the crowds.
Karen also often works to commission, drawing and painting people or pets. Regular feedback has been that her portraits look alive.
She really enjoys showing people what she has learned during her years of practice and does demonstrations and workshops at art clubs around Scotland, she is frequently asked to return.
In 2024, Karen was thrilled to have her first solo exhibition, including collages, at the Dundas Street Gallery in Edinburgh. “Initially, the idea of filling a whole gallery with my artworks was a bit daunting. However, having a target to work towards was good and I really had fun making the collage works for the exhibition.” By using collage as a medium Karen was able to explore her love of texture and patterns. For the Edinburgh exhibition, she explored her time at the Fringe. Making a series of collage artworks from her “backstage” viewpoint as a festival performer was enlightening. A series of bird artworks were included, as being in nature always helps her return to the ground after the buzz of the Royal Mile.
She makes contemporary bird collages to spread joy. Karen loves injecting humour into her art; look closely to see random images from magazines. She likes to recycle, incorporating remnants of paintings and maps, meaning you see new things in her art again and again.
Instagram: @krvandeg
