Karen Bartone

Artist Statement

About this Work
Painted from direct observation on a woodland pond in a Connecticut shoreline community, this work explores perception through the shifting surface of water. The circular format creates an immersive field of vision, where reflection, depth, and surface merge. Vertical tree forms extend downward into the pond as the reflected house dissolves into light, while lilies and movement disrupt the clarity of mirrored space. No mechanical aids are used to make this work.

Developed over multiple sessions, the image holds layered moments of looking rather than a single fixed view. Rooted in the New England plein air tradition, the work reflects an ongoing engagement with place and time, where repeated observation records the shifting conditions of light, season, and perception.
Artist Statement

Artist Statement & Biography

My work is based in painting from direct observation in Connecticut and the broader New England landscape, where the natural environment has long shaped both artistic practice and cultural identity. Working en plein air and returning to the same location over time, I study how light, atmosphere, and season continually transform a familiar place.

These circular paintings focus on a single pond environment observed across multiple moments. As a Connecticut-born artist who lives and works in the state, I paint the landscape I know, grounding the work in place. This site is both my home landscape and the location of my studio, allowing for sustained, daily observation. Rather than presenting a fixed view, the work explores perception as active and shifting, where reflection, surface, and depth merge into a unified visual experience.

Within this landscape, subtle traces of human presence—such as cultivated elements along the pond’s edge—suggest an ongoing relationship between people and place. In Connecticut’s cultural history, the natural environment has also served as a site of memory and meaning, particularly through the tradition of plein air painting.

Through repetition and sustained attention, the work becomes a record of time: of seasonal change, of observation, and of the quiet ways a place is experienced and understood.

Painted from direct observation on a woodland pond in a Connecticut shoreline community, this work explores perception through the shifting surface of water. The circular format creates an immersive field of vision, where reflection, depth, and surface merge. Vertical tree forms extend downward into the pond as the reflected house dissolves into light, while lilies and movement disrupt the clarity of mirrored space. Organic forms overtake the inorganic, emphasizing the instability of reflection and the continual transformation of the image.

Developed through sustained observation over multiple sessions, the painting holds layered moments of looking rather than a single fixed view. Light, season, and atmosphere continually reshape the scene, and the image remains open, responsive, and unresolved. Rooted in the New England plein air tradition, the work reflects an ongoing engagement with place, where repeated return forms a record of time. It reflects how we see before the image settles into a fixed understanding.

Karen Bartone is a Connecticut-based painter and university art professor working within the American plein air tradition, rooted in the landscapes of Southern New England. Born in Hartford, Connecticut and raised in Simsbury, she has lived in the state for most of her life, with her studio on a woodland pond in a Connecticut shoreline community for more than two decades.

She holds an MFA in Painting from Western Connecticut State University, a BFA in Painting from the Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts, and a BA from Vermont State University, Johnson. Since 2022, she has pursued ongoing study in the plein air workshop and mentorship tradition with painter David Lussier, continuing a lineage of American plein air painting that informs her studio practice and teaching.

Her work has been recognized in regional and national juried exhibitions, including Best in Show (2022), the Inspired Vision Award (2025), and an Honorable Mention at the Perkins Cove Plein Air Event (2025). She has received multiple competitive professional development grants from 2022 to 2026 in support of her research in plein air painting, including funded study and mentorship throughout New England, with over $30,000 in combined support from the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities system.

Bartone is represented by Six Summit Gallery and Meridian Art Consulting & Gallery in Boston, and her work is held in both private and public collections, including Eastern Connecticut State University, Three Rivers Community College, Western Connecticut State University, the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association, and the Florence Griswold Museum’s palette painting collection.