Visiting Matisse

Concept

Colour is of prime importance in Karen Rieger’s work, evoking mood, sensuality and a sense of beauty.

A rich pastiche is found within her figure and still life paintings, comprised of diverse inspirations such as the avant-garde movements of the 19th and 20th centuries, European textile patterns and sources derived from her immediate environment. A dialogue between her imagination and the past informs the work. The painting begins to reveal itself as the brush interacts with the canvas. There are no preparatory sketches. The process of creating the painting is intuitive and remains exciting and spontaneous.

The composition is drawn directly onto the canvas with conte´ or brush, beginning with the figure or a vase of flowers, and then creating the surrounding environment. When the composition is completed with the various elements in place, the underpainting is begun. Layers of paint are added to the surface, allowing the colour of the underpainting to show through, creating richness and a depth to the surface colour.

The faces are derived from her imagination, the features generalized to suggest universality rather than a specific person. Inspiration for the still life paintings may come from a bouquet on her table, or many times they simply emerge luxuriantly and fully formed onto the canvas.

Karen’s childhood summers were filled with weekend explorations of the countryside. These early road trips, rich with images, fed her internal visual archive. Viewed from the car window, an ever-changing vista rolled before her eyes.
Walks through woods immersed her in dark shadows where rays of glinting light pushed their way between boughs, dappling the forest floor, luminous and redolent of earth.

In her landscape series, she has painted scenes inspired by both the countryside and the city’s verdant backyards, all filtered through imagination and an emotional response translated into lively brushstrokes and an abundance of colour.

Impasto strokes of acrylic are laid upon watercolour like underglazes and the marks of the initial drawing are sometimes revealed.

The paintings depict the energetic essence of landscape and capture the passion for the natural world that she was introduced to as a child, that held a kind of magic and an ethereal quality that still resonate strongly within her.