“I move through my subject, always expressing a special joy and freedom in my use of color. My latest works are inspired by a trip to Antarctica and South America and a trip to Europe. Interacting with the Antarctica landscape was the most incredibly moving experience of my lifetime and opened doors to interpreting water and dramatic skies. I could never have imagined such beauty and pristine majesty and how it would affect my work. The European trip added the element of moody, shifting fog. As always, my work expresses a special joy including freedom in color. When I achieve a ‘painters high’, I know I’m in the zone.”

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Following a thirty-six year career in the graphic arts industry, Karen returned to her first love, painting.

Her re-entry into fine art was somewhat serendipitous. On a whim, she participated in a two-week painting trip to France with a group of women artists from Peterboro, NH. Her Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) education, which had so strongly influenced her career, enabled Karen to begin her second career as an artist, gallery owner and educator. Her gallery is one of the very few venues where local artists can show their work.

Necessary for her personal artistic advancement, Karen sought out and studied with some of the leading pastel painters in the United States including Frank Federico, Doug Dawson, Sally Strand, Robert Carsten and Albert Handel, whom she considers her mentor. Her exploration of both subject matter and materials contributed to an unusual “blend” and painterly style in her works executed primarily in soft pastel.

To date, Karen has shown her landscape paintings of Europe, Florida, New Mexico, New England, South America and Antarctica as well as abstracts and still lifes in galleries in Naples and New England. Her work has been selected for publication several times in the local Naples news media. Ms. Stone’s paintings have been exhibited in National juried competitions in Michigan and Maine, and the International Association of Pastel Societies Convention in Santa Fe, NM. Shows in which Stone participates have all been juried at the Von Leibig Art Center in Naples, Art League of Bonita Springs and Art League of Marco Island. She has received many awards including the NAA Pastel Award in the 2006 Founders Show and the same award in 2008 and Pastel Award for Excellence 2009.

Ms. Stone was a charter member and officer of the Southwest Florida Pastel Society, an artist member of the Naples Art Association, and member of the Art League of Bonita Springs, Art League of Marco Island. She also serves as a member of the Naples Art Association Advisory Committee and actively worked on the “Show of Shows”, The Naples Art Association first non-juried, all member exhibition.

Karen maintains ARTGALLERY OLDNAPLES, which serves as her gallery, studio and classroom in Naples, FL. She is known for her “plein air” works and taught still life and plein air painting at the Art League of Bonita Springs.