Karen’s upcoming show is an inspiring exhibition bursting with colour, character and imagination!
Opening night is this coming Friday 22 April at 6pm, and the night will be filled with festivities, with live music by Andy Rigby, Natasha Mullings and Peter Sullivan, and catering by hospitality students from the Castlemaine Secondary College. Everyone is welcome!
Well loved artist, teacher and Newstead local Karen Pierce presents a long awaited celebratory exhibition, Karen and the Kids, marking her retirement after 45 years teaching art and craft in schools around Victoria. In addition to her work as a practicing artist and private art tutor, Karen has worked in art education at schools across the state, including Altona North, Flemington, Brunswick, Maryborough, Maldon, Kangaroo Flat, Golden Square, Kyneton, Castlemaine and most recently in her home town of Newstead.
Karen and the Kids is a rare opportunity to see a huge body of retrospective and recent work in one location and will be a treat for anyone with a sense of creativity and adventure. Karen and the Kids represents a selection of the work of thousands of creative hands, hearts and minds over almost five decades and will surely inspire many more.
A celebration of colour, imagination and versatility, the kids artwork on display presents a true smorgasbord for the eyes, with all manner of brightly decorated puppets, hobby horses, creatures and contraptions – showing us there is truly no limit to the imagination. Karen’s own paintings combine these childhood creations into finished works of art – bringing together brash marches of hobby horses, oceans of rainbow fish and tides of pirate ships.
Karen and the Kids also includes a special new series of original paintings from Karen entitled, ‘Edge of the Forest’ that capture the unique light and beauty of the Australian bush landscape.
“I’d be lost without my imagination. It’s essential. And everything you do is a part of a cycle of ideas. In fact, these new paintings of mine hark back to paintings I did in my final year of College.”
Many of Karen’s large-scale school projects – such as the Maldon Folk Festival stage banner, created in 1998 with Maldon Primary School – involve all students at every year level, and result in beautiful, distinctive assets for the local community.
There will also be plenty of creative artplay activities for kids to enjoy throughout the exhibition.
Opening night on Friday 22 April 2016 will be filled with festivities, with live music by Andy Rigby, Natasha Mullings and Peter Sullivan, and catering by hospitality students from the Castlemaine Secondary College. Everyone is welcome!
Karen and the Kids runs every weekend from 23 April until 8 May 2016 at the Newstead Arts Hub, a beautiful exhibition space located at the newly restored Newstead Railway Station.
Newstead Arts Hub 