karen van de vliet

Karen van de Vliet is a visual artist known for her abstract, colourful paintings. With music being the bridge to her personal and meditative and creative state, Karen creates wondrous paintings that convey the magic of everyday life. 

More about the artist

Karen van de Vliet developed an approach to her work that focusses on the beauty of imperfection. She is intrigued by seemingly ordinary shapes that were not created intentionally, such as weathered and eroded surfaces caused by nature, or casual traces of use. Mesmerised by the shapes in the thick paint of pedestrian walkways, chewing gum on the street or cracks in damaged building blocks, Karen translates these structures and reliefs onto the canvas. Her great love for nature, its trascience and the beauty of everyday life, become visible through abstract, colourful and expressive paintings.

Nature - and water in particular - plays an important role, as its force has the ability to break down almost anything. There is something in the diffuseness, in the transparency and the constant movement that draws her in. Like water, her work is constantly moving, constantly developing into different forms of expression. Experimenting with different pigments, materials and techniques allows her to move forward. In this process, there is an interplay between conscious actions and subconscious movements. Karen aims to find a balance in this combination; seeking for harmony between thinking and doing. Only then, a state of freedom without judgement can be reached. Her working method can therefore best be described as a manipulated experiment, in which the outcome is never fixed. Working with water hereby allows her to distance herself from what should be and embrace what is. 

CV