Betsy Karounos

My paintings, drawings, and prints are representational reflections of people, objects, or situations that have piqued my interest. Sometimes the attraction is purely aesthetic in a superficial way – the way the light hits a surface or the dynamic energy of a figure's pose, for instance. Other times the subject has thematic or narrative significance that references personal experience. My painting process consists of working in layers of oil paint — the first layer being freely drawn monochromatically and laid down in anticipation of subsequent layers. My goal is to maintain cohesiveness throughout the compostion and to create depth and luminosity with the paint. I'm also keenly interested in the way the eye moves around an image. Another important consideration for me is that the piece holds interest from a close vantage point as well as from a distance — like approaching a Vermeer to discover the warm red of the under–painting providing the halftone in a finger. I approach my graphic work similarly by constructing tonal areas using lots of marks, both additive and subtractive, with a dark tool and eraser.