About Karen Boylan
Karen Boylan describes her art as a passion. She constantly finds herself drifting away from the reality of life and concentrating on how light affects objects, the contrasts in colors, and the infinite detail of everything from grass, rocks, and leaves to the vastness of the landscapes around her. “It’s an obsession, really.”
She has always had a fascination with nature and animals; their shape, color, texture, and most of all, their beauty. Her passion began at an early age, especially her fascination with horses. Her life has always revolved around these beautiful animals, competing in gymkhanas (games on horseback), horse shows, and rodeos, and they are an essential part of the ranch work she does today.
Since graduating from Montana State University, Karen has ranched with her husband, Doug, in the Beartooth Mountains of Red Lodge, and the Gallatin Valley of Bozeman, Montana. She recognizes the importance of painting familiar subjects and draws from her experience as a rancher to create the details paintings that have brought her recognition through numerous awards. Attention to detail is the most important aspect of her work.
Although she has worked in gouache, acrylic, pencil and scratchboard, Karen has been concentrating mainly on oils. Traveling throughout the country, she participates in the show such as the Ellensburg National Art Show & Auction, Ellensburg, Washington; the C.M. Russell Show, Great Falls, Montana, the Northern International Livestock Exposition, Billings, Montana, and the NFR Cowboy Christmas Show & Sale in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Karen continues ranching today, drawing inspiration from the beautiful surroundings in which she lives. Her paintings are created out of admiration and respect for the Western style of life and the animals she works with. There is a fine balance between ranch work and creating art. Whether calving, branding, doctoring or just moving cattle she loves what she does and relishes the physical challenge as well as the mental change that gives freshness and new life to her paintings.