Naturally Serene Artist Karen Crocker

Naturally Serene Artist Karen Crocker

Naturally Serene Artist Karen Crocker

Inside Karen Crocker’s art studio and shop, you will find paintings that span a variety of mediums, custom contemporary wall murals and fabric, and small pieces of furniture that reflect what she calls the
“extraordinary natural surroundings” of Cape Cod. She loves the variety of working in different mediums. “I enjoy them all,” she says.“I do that because I have always had a dream of doing more than one thing, offering many choices for buyers and challenging my talent.”

Her goal is to capture the beauty of a flower, character of an animal, or flow of an ocean wave. She describes her approach to art as a contemporary, in which she employs soft colors that she thinks will evoke in the viewer a sense of peace. “Living on Cape Cod inspires me to create beautiful and serene paintings. I believe that surrounding oneself with beauty is uplifting to the soul. My gallery is a very special place, when people come into the gallery they feel a sense of serenity, similar to the feeling of being at the beach.”
Much of Karen’s work is done on commission, and part of the joy in her process is to collaborate with a customer to create a custom piece of art that reflects their design aims as well as her artistic sensibilities. 

“I enjoy working with people who have a vision of what they want in their home whether it be a specialty wall finish or a custom piece of art.”
While her roots on Cape Cod run deep, she sometimes still finds herself surprised that she is living here. Karen grew up in Centerville, the third of four daughters of Pam and Carlton Crocker. Her father grew up in Osterville with roots deep in the community as publisher of the local Village Advertiser paper.

Ironically, she notes, she began painting relatively late in life. “I didn’t paint as a child. My first love is sewing and fashion design.” She Iater attended the University of Maine in Orono as a fine art major. “There, I was focused on drawing and print making.”

She returned to the Cape, settled down, and had two sons, both of whom are now in college. “It wasn’t until after Nate and Curtis were born that I started focusing on painting,”

he notes. “I had ideas about the type of work I wanted to create. I was finally at the point in my life where I was mature enough to slow down and create. When the boys were young, I used to paint in the evenings after they went to bed.” On the weekends, back then, she would take what she painted and bring the pieces to local shows. “That was a lot of work and often I wouldn’t even sell anything.”

Karen notes that it is a challenge for an artist to be able to make a living from painting, and she is grateful for the opportunity to have the space in Osterville to both create – and sell –her work. For eighteen years, she has
owned an interior painting company,
which provides the mainstay of her
income. “But,” she adds, “it wasn’t
until I opened the gallery when I
really started selling; Osterville has the
clientele…The people who come into the gallery are one of the main reasons for my work evolvingw and sending me in new directions.”
Working in Osterville has been such a positive experience for her that she is compelled to give back to the community – and foster more opportunities for
a communal art experience for those living and painting here. Three years ago she and Osterville artist Susan Ferriman organized Plein Air Osterville, a one-day event in which local artists create a painting in a natural setting in the village, with the artwork then auctioned off as a fundraiser to benefit the Osterville Village Library. “The idea,” she says, “is to have artists out in the village painting, at the beach, boat yard, or in town throughout the day so people can see the paintings in progress. At the end of the day, they can come and bid on the piece they want.”
Karen is delighted to be able to continue painting and living in her community, by the Cape’s ocean and woodlands from which she derives so much inspiration. As she reflects on the goal of her art, she notes the all-important relationship between the painter and the viewer. “The goal of my art is to make my viewer feel good every time they look at it. It’s the beauty of simplicity in color, texture and subject matter.”

article by – Karyn Bober Kuhn8892380476?profile=RESIZE_400x

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