Karen Neale Art, Watercolour Artist and World Heritage Artist, London

9^th February 2010

07710 406 967
London

click here to email

Hello & Welcome to my Website

Hello! Please see my new web page about my 'artwork at Arsenal and the Willow Foundation' and look out for my London paintings at the UA exhibition in April, and again at Spitalfields in July....further details below.....

London in Landscape Volume II © Karen Neale

I am a London based artist and architect. Wherever I am in the world, my passion is sketching and painting life around me, in my annotated, watercolour sketchbook diaries. Once I’ve seen what I’d like to capture, I draw as much as I can of what is going on around me in my book, using an ordinary black biro. Then I add colour using my small field box of watercolours and I make notes around the perimeter of each sketch to describe my observations.

View from the top of Millbank Tower © Karen Neale
please click on the image below to see a larger picture

My first London sketchbook diary entitled ‘London in Landscape’ was published in October 2006. ‘London in Landscape Volume II’ should have been published on May 6th 2009 and launched at the Barbican Library. Sadly this didn't happen though the exhibition was a great success and paintings went like 'hot cakes'! Finally though, Volume II has arrived!Volume II is available through Methuen, Amazon and also through me at Spitalfields. Please see below.

Forthcoming Events:
A few of my paintings will be appearing at the annual United Society of Artists Exhibition at The Menier Gallery in April. Further details to follow soon.
Then my work will be returning to Spitalfields in July, September and December. Further details will follow soon.

Inside St Pancras Station © Karen Neale
please click on the image below to see a larger picture

For ‘London in Landscape Volume II’ I have been out and about again sketching whilst being totally absorbed in the atmosphere of our amazing capital city. I’ve visited some favourite old haunts as well as some new ‘discoveries’…..

View from the top of BBC Broadcasting House © Karen Neale
please click on the image below to see a larger picture

When I begin to sketch, I soon become completely focused and absorbed in my surroundings. I feel a sense of calmness in which I am at once in the thick of things, and yet abstracted, as I commit to paper what I see, and equally important what I feel at this time. For me the whole experience is most therapeutic.

Karen Neale Art: 'Me and my Work'

I am a London based artist and architect. That's me in the top left corner of this web page, sketching the last football match at Arsenal's Highbury ground on May 7th 2006, as a commission for an ardent fan! In the top right corner, I'm braving the winds racing across Waterloo Bridge in November 2007.

My sketchbooks have taken me on some wonderful adventures. In 2001 I was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to undertake an artist’s journey through World Heritage Cities and Sites. From France, I travelled eastwards through eight countries to Nepal, recording what I saw in the pages of my sketchbook diary. Subsequently I spent time in Cuba, culminating in a solo exhibition of my work at the British Ambassador’s residence in Havana. Those paying close attention to Volume II of London in Landscape will notice that this sketchbook has also travelled back to Havana for two of the sketches and the ‘Capitolio’ does a great impression of St. Paul’s!

Havana, Cuba © Karen Neale
please click on the image below to see a larger picture

Back in London, I was appointed the ‘MCC Young Cricket Artist for 2005’, based at Lord’s Cricket Ground, and was also artist in residence at Queen’s Club for the 2007 tennis season. So Volume II of London in Landscape includes one sketch from each of these famous sports venues.

Some of my other projects include Hadrian’s Wall, and sketching in and around the Palace of Westminster, both of which are World Heritage Sites, as well as a spell as ‘artist in residence’ at the Athenaeum.

Tsunami Appeal Match at Lord's © Karen Neale
please click on the image below to see a larger picture

If you would like to contact me for further information, please click here to e-mail or call me on
07710 406967

I hope you enjoy looking around the website. Karen