Karen Stamper

Karen Stamper’s collage paintings started with the urban boat yard.

Karen Stamper’s creative process

Her work is very much process led, she constructs and deconstructs with layers of paper and paint to make irregular shaped abstract collage paintings. She continues to take her inspiration from the worn and once loved, the humble detritus already marked with the passing of time. She is drawn to traces left behind by time and human hands, the unintentional marks that speak of practical fixing. The physicality of layering, cutting, distressing, dissembling becomes integral to each of her composition’s character and personality. But, increasingly Karen feels, as she layers up and reveals, she is exploring more about how much we patch and conceal the stories in our lives.

The more work develops, the more stripped back and dynamic the compositions become. Each piece becomes cheekier and more defiant; they jutt and spill out of the frame: expanding shapes, stretching, reaching, teetering, balancing. The functional character of house paint, together with the creases, folds, wrinkles and many edges of paper delivers a new vocabulary of exciting shapes, edges and surfaces. Compositions become punchier: each kink, curve and accidental blemish accentuated and celebrated in its own right. Flat colour abutts a dribbly paint stick. Multiple panels intersect and animate the work; small quirky groupings of irregular pieces engage in vivid conversations with one another.

Far from being pretty and neat, this work is gobby and loud – the maverick in the corner! It represent an exciting new stage of Karen’s collage paintings that is rooted in her previous work. Acknowledging their roots in the gritty practical life of the boatyard, these pieces are boldly unconventional, surprising and playful.