“Have Dock, Will Peer”
acrylic on birch panel
5 x 7 in.
About the Artist:
This painting depicts what any child will naturally do on any dock presented to them: Have Dock, Will Peer. “My, how they were entranced with ‘all of the nothing in particular at all’ that they saw. Our gift as an artist, taking distractions and sharing just why for us each, they are indeed a cherished keepsake. Sis and I, single moms and masters at finding free entertainment, exercise, adventure and shade with our 5 children at hand, took them on a hike along a nature trail right in our home town. Simplistic influential daily moments and the lasting effects these memories play on our hearts and minds throughout our lives are a joy to reflect in a painting.”- Karen Ann
Have Dock Will Peer, an earlier studio piece also represents inspirations for upcoming studio paintings of artist Karen Ann Hitt. Depicting figures and the outdoors is what fueled much of Hitt’s plein air pursuits, and her HITTing the road to further them. Because most early commission work was of children, painting them in the studio, she didn’t get ‘outside’ painting enough as desired. She intentionally sought a way to enhance that, adding overall a plan to simply “grow as an artist to meet the next season in life” empty nest. “I can contest that I have learned to ‘see’ by getting out more painting in the open air ‘Plein Air’, blessed that opportunity opened the door to do so, beyond anything imaginable.”-Karen.
This featured art is painted in Acrylic. An allergic reaction had arose while painting in Oils, and–while since remedied–the remedy at the moment out of necessity was to use Acrylics in a manner that they represented classic Oil Techniques. Karen Ann, trained at Parsons School of Design; ‘fat over lean’ as it has been defined for centuries. As a Fine Art instructor herself now, of draftsmanship, perspective, along with the fundamentals of the figure, emphasizing the children’s, those aspects remain underlining in this composition as a cherished moment in time is reflected.
Since 2013, Karen Ann has been traveling extensively across the USA, first on a solo 21,000+ mile, 5-month Plein Air journey crisscrossing America camping from her Tahoe, named ‘trusty steed’, plein air painting and visiting every major Art Exhibit, Museum, Event possible all along the way. Jokingly Karen shares, “youngest turned 22 and momma took a road trip, a really big road trip.” Just before the One Women Show culminating from the journey, and in the middle of this three-year quest to grow… Karen Ann met and married. “He liked my road map!” Karen jokes. So she with her husband ‘Hitt’ the road for 5 months, this time on a USA Honeymoon in an RV, towing behind them her Trusty Steed. Many Plein Air works from these journeys have been juried into national exhibits themselves, and have even won awards.
The artists focus remains always to continue the growing, and challenging herself, she notes a beloved quote of Michelangelo spoken at 87 years of age, “I am still learning” but also emphasizing it in studio paintings by bringing these travels back into the studio at a larger scale and pulling on the vast master works she studied anew in her travels too. ‘Something I love getting to do back in the studio is capture the figures and details in a manner that they share a bit more of the story taking place …at that moment.’
The Artist Statement: Karen’s paintings capture influential daily moments, and the lasting effects these memories play on our hearts and minds throughout our lives. These paintings accentuate the effects of light to the scene adding to the luminosity of Karen’s award winning art.
As an artist the passion is to reflect light, life, land, expressions as genuinely experienced ‘At That Moment…’. I paint to transport you while also exposing you to the very emotion that stops us in our tracks to experience a view; simply, seeking with my art to bring you into viewing your own ‘At That Moment…’, too. Have Dock, Will Peer, has that effect on the viewer, hoping to see for themselves just what caught the children’s eye, or it takes them themselves back to cherished time of their own.
Karen never imagined all that has transpired in the last few years. ‘Being a semifinalist in the Plein Air Salon with this painting is a humbling honor and added highlight.’ It is on display at Karen Ann’s Working Art Studio in historic downtown Venice, Florida, Karen Ann Hitt – An Original Hitt- Fine Art & Atelier, and at her website: www.AnOriginalHitt.com
What Now? The ‘New’ in this Next Season of life continues with two new painting series: Plein Air Skyscapes titled Slices of Red- Awakenings taken from sunrises, and Studio Entertaining Angels Unaware of the many angels here on earth that have entered into Karen Ann’s view, long awaiting the opportunity to paint them in the continuing theme, cherish life’s simple keepsakes and reflect them.
