Karen Barnett is an abstract and realism painter; her mediums vary from oil and mixed media to clay and pastels. She creates intensely colored abstract paintings and plein aire pastels, some of the work is large blocks (or fields) of color with expressive lines and marks, and some of it is representational local landscape. She is devoted to lush, saturated colors you could slather on or step inside of. She has recently been taking a sweeping landscape and focusing on one compelling space—a microscopic view of one of her own landscape paintings—and turning them into large abstracted oil paintings.

The Studio Tour is an opportunity to see her new work in progress and to see the original paintings that offer these compelling spaces. Throughout her career, Karen Barnett has also carved low relief images into ceramic tile and light sconces, a natural extension of drawing and painting. She has shown her work extensively in Texas, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah. In Estes Park, you may have seen her work at Ed's Cantina or Rock Cut Brewery.