Icelandic hyperrealistic painter Karen Pálsdóttir in the Baltimore's art district

Enjoy Karen Pálsdóttir’s work featured at LED billboard in Baltimore in January 2020. It is a public art project located in the Station North Arts District that showcases the work of local emerging artists.

In her most recent monochromatic oil paintings, Pálsdóttir explores various subjects through a cobalt blue lens. By painting fractions of her female models and botanical compositions in blue, she explores the historical context in which early humans did not make distinctions between the colors green and blue, due to the rarity of blue in nature. Pálsdóttir photographs her subjects and uses a collage-like approach, where she crops the reference imagery of her female posers and overlays them with compositions that she captures in nature. Using the final digital image as a reference, she starts by applying the darkest hues onto the canvas and finishes with the lighter colors. These accumulated layers leave visible traces of her technique, creating a life-like depth in the portraits.