Karen Sylvester
LANDSCAPE ARTIST
ABOUT
Born in 1965 in the beautiful Caribbean twin isle states of Trinidad & Tobago, artist Karen Sylvester certainly demonstrates her reverence for nature and love for her homeland through her paintings. Capturing the quiet magnificence of nature’s landscape is the vehicle through which she instructs the viewer to take time out to acknowledge the importance of preserving the very things that sustain us. Her renderings implore the viewer to calm the spirit and rest the soul by absorbing the therapeutic qualities nature continuously provides.
Karen’s paintings are brought o life by detailed portrayals using acrylic on canvas, careful to capture the essence, mood and atmosphere of the scene. As one of the most in demand and well respected artist in the region, her work can be seen at the National Museum and has found its place in the archives of collectors both home and abroad. Her solo exhibitions have been known to sell out and her open door policy at her studio and gallery is always a hub of activity.
This artist has been involved in solo and group shows both locally and abroad since 1993. She continues to be involved in many art auctions as a way of giving back to her community and has participated in environmental conservation efforts. Karen has juried art competitions, given lectures and demonstrations in schools and art groups. She has also hosted visiting artists from several countries, sharing her ideas, insight and techniques freely with her peers.
Growing up on the banks of a river in the Northern Range of her island has greatly influenced and impacted her special love for painting waterscapes, a genre for which she is particularly known.
Although Karen has no formal training, she has developed her unique skills through direct, intense observations of her natural environment. She makes sketches, takes photographs, and, together with visual memory recall, Karen transforms the physical landscape into an emotional experience that is inescapable.
Conservation
It's a rare opportunity for art collectors to buy original artwork by internationally acclaimed artists and directly support conservation work. Karen has been a main stay in such activities with proceeds from her donated artwork sales directly benefitting many conservation and environmental education organisations.
Charity
Karen is devoted to raising awareness and securing funds for humanitarian causes by donating artwork for the sake of change. Having a calling as an artist is a true gift. The inner drive to create beautiful things is such an awesome feeling, but the ability to do good things in this world with your art is even better.
Press
Links to articles, interviews and publications
Testimonials...
Trinidad is a developing country with a rich, colonial history. The natural environment of this tropical island, full of trees, brush, undergrowth, light, bright skies and water everywhere is Sylvester’s inspirational palate. In an almost surreal way, Karen cut pieces out of the landscape and lay them with maximum directness and care upon the canvas.
A century ago Jean Michel Cazabon tried to do precisely the same thing. Cazabon came to this position via France where he studied. His was the time of he Barbizons when painters like Corot were painting the landscape as though they had never seen it before. It is to this legacy that I think we can most usefully turn if we wish to locate Sylvester’s work in the broader historical sweep of artistic endeavour.
There is another, more immediate influence to which I should refer and it is the growing realization that unless we take care of the environment we shall have less and less of the planet to bequeath to the next generation to come.
When Karen Sylvester looks at a leaf and paints it with the same loving attention to detail, she makes us stop and take stock of the extent to which our carelessness has put the environment at risk. It is a wake up call to the population which never had leisure or sensitivity to see the island as being a beautiful and blessed place. But it is also a world which today’s urban situation of concrete, steel, traffic and computer images needs to see because the work offers refreshment and relief from an environment now wearied by its own progress.'
2003: Comments by Dr. Pat Bishop. TC.HBM,BA Hon Fine art. MA History. Hon D. Litt. 1981
There is a saying among Sylvester’s close family and friends that one can see Karen in each of her paintings and that one could tell what kind of person she is through her work.
In fact, Sylvester’s fascination with nature and her surrounding environment is evident in her paintings. This renowned artist who is best known for her waterscapes and landscapes is also an environmental advocate.
In every one of her paintings, she captures the beauty that exists throughout T&T.
“Most of my clients hike, they go across Trinidad, they cannot get enough of the environment and they know all the waterfalls and all the tracks. I think that is a little sad so perhaps I can bring it to them through the painting.
2014: Trinidad Express. Mark Fraser.