Karen Vance - Cover Artist -Landscapes of Colorado!

Our very own Karen Vance has been honored with having her work published on the cover in addition to having 5 pieces included in the book itself.

Landscape of Colorado by Ann Scarlett Daley (Author), Michael Paglia (Author) features the efforts of artists who have used the state's natural beauty as inspirations for their paintings and photographs. Art curator Ann Daley selected the artists. Some lived in Colorado only briefly, while others have spent their entire careers in the state. Daley also provides an essay linking each artist to the impressive history of Colorado, where for over a century painters and photographers have been attracted to its magnificent views and its crisp, clear light. Art critic Michael Paglia provides a profile of each of the artists. In writing about them, he takes into account key experiences in their development, as well as analyzing their varying styles, the techniques they embrace, and places them in the broader context of landscape art. The artists found in Landscapes of Colorado display a wide range of aesthetic approaches from neotraditional to contemporary realist. Landscapes of Colorado is an overview of the rich vein of contemporary art in Colorado. This overview of the rich vein of contemporary art in Colorado highlights the varied work created in response to the natural beauty of the state.

About the Artist

KAREN VANCE hails from a family rich in art. She was born into the sixth generation of fine artists. As a child, in her Chicago suburban home, Sunday afternoons were reserved as family time. "My father, David Swartwout, an accomplished painter and sculptor, would give my sisters and me art lessons -how to draw a tree in our backyard or draw boats from the shore at Belmont Harbor. Or on a rainy Sunday, we would often spend an afternoon at the Art Institute learning from 'The Masters'. In our modest home, art was paramount. We had only original art hanging on our walls, I grew up knowing good art -I was surrounded by it", says Vance.
Vance's fine art studies include art and graphics at Northern Illinois University, the Art Institute of Chicago and Classical Painting at the Village Art Academy in Skokie, Illinois. She has studied under the direction of the "best of the best" living artists in America today: Carolyn Anderson, Burton Silverman, Scott Christensen, Mark Daily, Michael Lynch, David Leffel, William Reese, Quang Ho, Clyde Aspevig, Richard Schmid, Michael Workman and many of the Plein Air Painters of America. Vance is a member the California Art Club, Art Students League of Denver, where she is a graduate of Quang Ho's Master's Class, Karen is a Signature Member of both Rocky Mountain Plein Air Painters, and the National Academy of Professional Plein Air Painters, and is a Master Signature Member of the American Woman Artists. "Quang Ho said, Vance is emerging as one of the nationally known artists in America and he has no doubt that she'll continue along a fast track toward artistic stardom". - Alpenglow Magazine, December 2000. ...