Karri Chapman

Painting for me is a way of slowing down life a little bit, and allowing myself the time to relax. In an age where technology is dominant and rendering by hand is less frequent, my work explores a meditative process which allows me to take my time investigating what I am feeling at that moment. I am interested in labor intensive delicate line work, and I allow that to be the subject matter in the pieces that I create.

I am also intrigued by natural patterns found in plant life around me, and so I use those elements in my pieces as well. Finding something so perfect in nature that was not created by man nor machine fascinates me. I reproduce an idea of that image by hand, knowing it will never be as perfect as the one found in nature, and that becomes part of the process.

I paint with watercolors on BFK printing paper. I use the paint in stages that vary from very thinned out to almost like an acrylic paint, and I try to use the smallest brushes I can find. Using such small brushes forces me to document more lines to cover an area, and also enhances the idea of time in each piece.