Karen Olsen Bender

Karen Olsen Bender

Although I had learned the rudiments of oil painting as a kid from my talented mother, I did not take painting seriously until my early twenties. At that time I learned watercolor from a very fine teacher, and I took to it with a passion. For a while, I spent most of my time experimenting with subject matter and techniques.

I then had a serious life change that resulted in my being alone with a child and needing to earn a living. I embarked on what would become a long career in graphic design and illustration. I was fortunate in that I enjoyed this work. The downside: for most of the years I have worked in this field, I had little time to paint as a ‘fine’ artist.

I have now reduced my design work so that I can devote more time to painting, and recently I returned to my very early days as an artist. The connection between little girls and horses is as mysterious as it is common, and I was one of those little girls who developed this passion for horses. My desires never got anywhere close to realization at that time, but that may have been a good thing, because I acted on that bursting passion by producing vast mountains of horse pictures. In time, as any unfulfilled passion does, it waned, and I moved on. Or so I thought. Fast forward I don’t want to say how many years when my granddaughter took up riding. It was my job to take her to lessons, and suddenly all those old feelings came rumbling back. And this time there was nobody to say NO, so I signed up for riding lessons! And I started painting horses again.

Recently I had another life change: I lost my beloved husband. My artistic direction changed abruptly and markedly as I cast about for ways to heal. Travel turned out to be good medicine, as did my return to teaching.

Email: karen@karenolsenfineart.com
Website: www.karenolsenfineart.com
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