Karen Roarke likes finding light in the delight of the present moment. Spending time betwixt referencing landscape and pursuing abstraction allows her to explore what captures her eye and attention. Roarke grew up in Cranston, Rhode Island.  After graduating from Boston College in 1984 where she majored in Studio Art, Karen moved to the beaches of Southern California.  In 1988 she earned a Master of Art degree in Drawing and Painting from California State University, Fullerton.  Continuing her studies at The Claremont Graduate University, Roarke received the Emily Ann Horowitz Fellowship and was awarded a Master of Fine Art degree in January 1990.  In 1994 she moved from downtown Los Angeles to New York City and three years later settled near the ocean in Middletown, Rhode Island. Roarke taught visual arts and served as Director of the Hunter Gallery at St. George's School from 2013-2019. In addition to working in her Middletown studio, Karen, a member of United Scenic Artists, Local USA 829, IATSE, works as a scenic artist in motion pictures and television productions.
Roarke’s work, exhibited locally and internationally for over 30 years, is included in the collections of Fidelity Investments, Nestlé Corporation, KVH Industries and Tokai Bank, and in numerous private collections.
Process matters to Karen Roarke. By mark making, layering, obscuring, removing and revealing, she creates painted surfaces exploring figure and ground, fluidity, pattern, transparency and opacity.
Currently, Roarke often sources color palette, composition, patterns, light and shadow from the surrounding landscape near her home in coastal Rhode Island. Inspired by the natural world, she is interested in distilling the visual properties that enamor her: light, color & the sky’s palette of ephemeral gradations, negative shapes, line and patterns found in vegetation and shadows. Rather than solely depicting an illustrated scene, she attempts to capture elements in constant flux.
Whatever image or idea forms the starting point for her in the studio, creating an aesthetically engaging non-representational painting is her intention.