Karen Dawnn
I was born in Toronto, Canada. I attended Ontario college of Art (part-time studies) in the early eighties and over the years I have worked as a freelance illustrator, photographer and writer. My interest in the natural world began as a young girl, after joining the Girl Guides. My troupe took many camping trips and as a result Northern Ontario became one of my most favored places and still is, as I spend most weekends there at our cottage in Haliburton. My fascination with all things Faerie also began as a young girl, when I began collecting the Flower Fairy books of English artist, Cicely Mary Barker. Something about the elusive and magical qualities of Faeries captured me then and has never let go. Currently I live with my family in Newmarket, Ontario, only a few footsteps from Fairy Lake (yes, Fairy Lake).
I consider myself a serious and prolific artist and photographer. Daily I endeavour to expand the body of work that will fill my faerie art book titled, Elsewhere-A journey to the realm of the Canadian faerie. Also in the works, an enchanting raw foods cookbook unlike any other. Experimenting with the recipes is a joy and the photos for the book have taken my art to a whole new level of wonderment. A wonderful childrens picture book titled Zoo Canoe is nearing completion and three other childrens picture books are also on the horizon. The thread that ties all my artistic endeavors together is a deep and abiding love for our world’s wild places and its wild creatures. I am tremendously inspired by the enduring magic and beauty of our natural places and the elusive notion of a Faerie realm. It is my creative goal to create paintings that combine these two entities into something intangibly delicate and utterly believable. It is the magic of the seen and the unseen that I hope to successfully capture in all my paintings, poems and photographs.
My hope is that my art will inspire in others a deep appreciation of our wild places, our wild creatures (seen and unseen) and the need to cherish and protect them. My deepest wish is for those who look upon my work to…BELIEVE.
Creative Wellspring
Joyously, I give thanks to the creative wellspring that dwells within. It never fails to provide me with endless possibilities for creative expression and expansion. It is my daily yoga practice and yogic lifestyle that has freed my imagination and brought me home to a state of innocence and grace in an authentic artists life. So fully do I believe in yogas transformative powers that I now share through teaching yoga several times a week.
Artistic Mediums
I have chosen to work with watercolour paints as no other paint handles in the fluid and flowing way of watercolours. I love their
transparency and they way they move when wet on the page. They are perfectly suited to my delicate and subtle artistic style. They are also the least harmful paint to the environment.
My photography gets me into the fields and woods that I so love, exploring, seeing and touching. Often I photograph live models in my own handmade costumes and paper wings. These images not only provide me with future reference for my paintings, but they become works of art in and of themselves. I believe it is my photographic images that give my paintings their authenticity.
As a writer, my words and poetry are my thoughts given wings and putting them to paper feeds my art and expands my love affair with all I see and do.
