Pop up art gallery
A pop up art gallery has opened at Hepple Hill Cottage.
It fits perfectly in the office area. The original paintings look amazing on our new stylish wooden ‘wall’. My dear friend and very talented artist Karen Matthews John has painted these local scenes. Three more have made themselves at home in the entrance hall.
Karen originally trained at Falmouth College of Art and Design (now Falmouth University) specialising in painting and sculpture. She went on to teach art at Greenfield Community College in Newton Aycliffe for many years.
Karen with her husband Gareth now works at an international school in Taipei, Taiwan but it is her love of the Durham Dales landscape which currently inspires her art.
Having recently spent the summer at their home in Westgate, Weardale, Karen said: ‘The landscape of Weardale and over the moors at Edmundbyers is hard to beat.
‘It is so easy to be inspired when you live in such a beautiful place.’
Karen uses acrylic gouache paint. ‘I really like the way it retains the intensity of colour while at the same being fixed when dry.’
Karen will continue to paint local landscapes when she returns to Taiwan – armed with a stash of photographs.
