Valley artist is hooked on watercolor

MAT-SU — After painting a Christmas scene on her living room window in Palo Alto in the 1960s, “I was hooked,” says Karen Mattson.

The yearning to paint was strong, money was short, and art supplies cost money.

Miraculously, while taking out the garbage, she uncovered some oil paints and a few brushes and tubes of paint in an apartment building trash bin where she lived with her husband, Bruce, and new baby.

“Wow, God certainly was quick in answering my prayers,” was her reaction.

From Palo Alto to Alaska, and from oil paints to acrylics, she says she “preferred the fast drying ease of the (latter)” to work with. It wasn’t long, however, until “watercolor took over!”

“I loved how the watercolors mingled together in the wet on wet applications (and how) dry on dry produced a more defined and detailed finished work,” she explains. “Every painting became a mystery on how it would turn out, and I loved this!”

After a dry 10 years of not painting at all, which she attributes to “orneriness,” her husband, an electrical engineer with his own business, challenged her to do an ink on Mylar drafting for him. The drafting became a full-time job for 10 years until a dinner guest noticed that the decade-old original art on the walls of the Mattson’s home was hers.

“That’s a crying shame,” he declared when she said that she no longer painted. “Someone with your talent should be painting.”

His comment “stuck me like a knife in the heart,” she says. It also motivated her to pick up the brushes and paint him a watercolor as a housewarming gift for his stepdaughter. All the excitement came back.

“I was back painting,” she says.

“After my long sabbatical from painting, I joined an Anchorage Woman’s Club group called the Paint Pushers,” she says. “I was very shy at first and would only read art books and watch the other gals painting. Gradually, I became more comfortable and started painting with them. It has not only been a great source of camaraderie, but has challenged me with many opportunities.”

Karen says that going out of her comfort zone has been rewarding and led her to other activities such as attending workshops (and later teaching a workshop), painting in front of people and later doing a demo for her peers. She says attempting a “painting I didn’t think I was capable of” is very rewarding.

When asked about her subject matter, she says, “I have painted animals, landscapes and tried my hand at abstract, but flowers definitely are my favorite subject. I’m a master gardener, and with a south-facing garden on (Nancy) Lake it is a garden palette of color.”

When the house was being built in 1999, she requested the foundation dirt for top soil in her garden, which is 2 feet deep in spots and none went to waste.

“Before I mulched, I was probably spending 60 hours a week working in the yard.” She says, “The gardens continue to grow in size each year, as does the time spent.”

Her garden is making for a favorite family site for weddings, with three out of five offspring tying the knot among the posies to date.

“My favorite flower to paint is the Oriental poppy, but any poppy will suffice,” Sharon says with the same exuberance as her lawn of color. “My yard became known for the poppies I grew, and probably was the first garden (that) people would ‘tour,’ before it became fashionable to do so.”

Although she had good luck with growing strawberries, she prefers flowers over fruits and veggies because, she says, “I quickly learned I was only feeding the moose, not the family.”

She combines her favorite worlds by her club memberships in the Willow Garden Club and the Valley Fine Arts Association. Serving on the board in both — president for one, treasurer the other — she is always making contributions to the community, such as devoting time to the Willow Library Garden and helping paint dogs on the windows at the Dog and Puppy Rescue with the VFAA. She is active in the Alaska Watercolor Society as well and serves on its board.

Her garden is full of prize-winning flowers in the summer that inspire her to create prize-winning paintings, including a recent Honorable Mention in the VFAA Juried Show at Alaska Gallery/Mad Matters in Palmer.

Other honors posted on her website include: “One of her larger works now hangs in the new Mat-Su Regional Medical Center in Palmer. An oil painting of a bald eagle was selected as one of 50 finalists for the state of Alaska in the Paint America 100 Competition in 2006 and her watercolor, ‘Alaskan Autumn’ was chosen for the 2007-2008 Mat-Su College Bulletin cover.”

Her website, karenmattson.com, offers step-by-step instructions on how to paint many of her paintings.

In her upcoming show at the Shane Lamb Studio in downtown Palmer, she will exhibit “A Touch of Autumn” as the theme, including flowers and leaves.

“I have experimented with pouring watercolors onto wet paper, then laying down leaves, pouring more paint and then covering the entire page with Saran wrap and placing heavy books on top,” she says. “After several hours — or even overnight — remove everything to see what image and texture was imprinted onto the paper. More often than not, (I include) negative painting or enhance the leaf images, … later (adding) a butterfly to give a focus of interest to the piece.”

She says the “experimentation is a satisfying aspect of the creative process.” Whether new techniques or tired and true, her art makes an impact in a big and colorful way.

Suzanne Bach teaches art at Mat-Su College.