KAREN O’NEIL

Light, and light’s ability to transcend the physical world is my particular passion when painting. Still life subjects enable me to focus on pure light and color relationships. Glass and white objects are my favorites, they allow me to bring to the painting what I want or need to find for color on a given day. My paintings have developed over decades, combining careful observation with powerful expression.

“You look, but you don’t see” is a phrase that my teacher Henry Hensche often repeated in class. What is actually there, in front of us, is always more exciting and unexpected that what we think should be there. I’ve spent decades learning to see, and communicate my observations through painting.