Karen Cooper: Positive Painting Utilizes Negative Space - Spring 2007 Issue of Horses in Art Magazine

Karen Cooper: Positive Painting Utilizes Negative Space

by Sarah H. Crampton

Trail Blaze — Pastel by Karen Cooper. "He was a big fellow with a cowgirl on his back. He was the first one ready for a long trail ride of the Backcountry Horsemen and kept looking back to check on the readiness and progress of his companions. He was anxious, he was first and oh, so handsome."
The dramatically striking pastel painting of Karen Cooper grabs the viewer’s attention at first glance. The black background and absence of what normally are considered essential elements demand the viewer fill in the gaps, prolonging the enjoyment while marveling at its unique effect.

Karen Cooper explains, "Mr. Webster writes that black is the absence of light and the absorption of all color. In my art I interpret that to mean that my black paper is looking for light and color when I start a painting and I am fulfilling that quest. But only partially; there is so much the black can add that I let it! The richness of the black of the paper makes its own case for being left to itself. I do not explain it; simply, it is a way of seeing."

This creative process, which is Karen's very own invention, continually inspires her. She states, "I love to sit down at the easel and let the flow begin. I paint other subjects including architecture, portraits, and dancers, but western men and women and their animals are just a thrill each time I paint one."

"The negative space works in my images as the most positive aspect of the painting,” Karen continues. “It keeps the work fresh, and the imagination just keeps making it happen over and over again. Because of this, the viewer becomes part of the creative process." Karen was not raised around cowboys, cowgirls, horses, or cattle. When she moved to New Mexico into the country, she found a much different environ than she had ever before encountered. She comments, "Nearly all of our new friends and neighbors were horse people; we were surrounded by the west. But still I was working on dancers of various genres, especially Native Americans. Then I photographed my neighbor's horses one day and decided I would try my hand at doing an equine. Well, both of those first two horse paintings sold in a heartbeat."

The Waiting Room — Pastel by Karen Cooper. "This is the bronc holding pen at Rodeo de Santa Fe. These horses were waiting their turn in the chutes and seemed to watch all of the action. It really looked as though they were watching and planning their strategies from what they were seeing; I swear you could almost hear them cheer when one of their own got rid of his rider."

Karen and her husband traveled to the Rodeo de Santa Fe and came back with some action-packed reference photos that she just had to try to paint. "Immediately, I was in love with rodeo action, cowboys, cowgirls, steers, calves, bulls, the whole bit," states Karen. "A friend came by the studio who just happened to be the president of the Northern New Mexico Backcountry Horsemen, saw my work and said, 'You really know what you are doing with these horses, You've got it right.' That sealed it for me."

There is, however, a bit of the west and pioneer heritage in Karen Cooper's family tree. Her great grandmother, Myrtle James, was Jesse James' cousin and part of the James clan in Missouri. Her great great great grandfather was friends with and scouted with Kit Carson and Fremont and brought his family from Missouri to California, arriving in 1847. While in transit they helped bury the remains of the Donner Party. She credits her family history coupled with an early introduction to Laura Ingalls Wilder books for igniting her pioneer spirit.

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