Bets Cole sells and shows her artwork nationwide. Working primarily in the plein air tradition, she paints outside in the landscape with immediacy and openness. She welcomes the challenge of exploring and painting unfamiliar places. Her choice of medium – whether acrylic, watercolor, gouache or charcoal – is dictated by the subject matter, colors, and quality of light specific to each location.

A native of  North Dakota  Karen grew up where the prairies with there wild open spaces and clean blue skies

 developed her love of the undeveloped landscape.

It was enhanced with a move to Arizona and then New Mexico with there magical red vistas. Life then took her to Coastal California where she also fell in love with painting the water. 

Karen had the need to create from and early age and has worked in many mediums including ceramics, china painting, water color ,pastels and oilseed acrylics. 

She lives in Carpinteria California  and is continually amazed at the beauty of a beach side atmospheric view.

“I strive to preserve the beauty in nature through my work. It is something of an act of preservation and in a way an act of rebellion to bring to the viewers attention the beauty of our endangered natural world.”

A “values” painter, Tara loves attuning to shadow and highlight, noticing the way a color changes as it moves into shadow or light, and reflects colors from it’s surroundings.