In still life paintings, the objects and vessels have evolved into a personal lexicon in which Karen's development of still life doubles as a metaphor suggesting the subtleties and complexities of human relationships. The groups are set within a theatrical space forged by colour, light and shadow.

The most recent landscape paintings are a direct result of travel in the deserts of the southwestern United States- Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Death Valley, California- whose dramatic colour, scale and light are proving a huge inspiration. Earlier travel in Tuscany, Umbria and Provence, and along the west coast of the USA, has been the basis for previous phases of her work, and for many exhibitions in the 1980s and 1990s.

The figure paintings place characters in a dramatic and theatrical space where their inner states of being are evoked in body language, colour, and expressionistic brushstrokes. All of Karen's work has been underpinned by a devotion to technical development in form and colour which began in her years as a Drawing and Painting student at Glasgow School of Art in Scotland.

Her involvement with life drawing continues today, both in the studio and occasionally as a tutor of students in the fashion industry. Drawing aside, Karen worked exclusively for many years in oil: but she currently enjoys painting in acrylic because of its immediacy and handling quality.