Award-winning artist and animal activist Karin Brauns was a featured artist at the prestigious Beverly Hills Art Show, held virtually this year on October 17 and 18, 2020. Her pre-show interview revealed her passion for painting the emotion infused animal pairs she creatively infuses with gold leaf, diamond dust, crystals, and precious stones.
Early in the interview, Karin revealed her Swedish upbringing, plus the many countries internationally she has called home. Today she splits her time between Los Angeles and Montreal with an active studio in both places. Most recently, she became a U.S. citizen and after living in the U.S. for 8 years, she’s excited to be able to call herself an American.
Brauns has drawn upon both her travels and her commitment to conservation for inspiration. “The beauty of nature has always been a big influence on me,” Brauns says. “It’s where I find peace. My mind wanders freely and stimulates my creative thoughts. Simply put, capturing nature and wildlife makes me feel good. When I create my representations of animals, they are very human and yet have a sense of purity. I also find myself inspired by the way I experienced different cultures in terms of how people in those countries related to animals and to each other.”
With animals as her main artistic theme, her latest creations have incorporated well-known brands along with precious and semi-precious stones. Imagine the eyes of a pair of flamingos glittering with diamonds, zebra stripes embellished with Dior ribbons and gold leaf, the shells of a pair of frolicking turtles embroidered with Swarovski crystals—each one drawing you in to explore and experience the image and emotions depicted more closely. The titles seem personal, yet subtle, bows to the brands incorporated. Those nuzzling zebras are “I Dior You,” a beautiful monarch butterfly escaping its cocoon becomes “Cocoon Chanel” emblazoned with diamonds and crystals, hummingbirds sipping happily from a bottle of Chanel No. 5 is titled “Luxurious Nectar.”
Perhaps one of her most ambitious projects has been finding a way to highlight and communicate through her art the dramatic plight and demise of bee populations around the globe. Brauns’s fascination with bees is not new, she actually has several earlier paintings of bees, including “Got Honey.” The new bee collection is actually a series that can be hung singly or as a triptych titled “Bee Gucci,” integrating the full spectrum of her mixed media work with layers of acrylics, resin, stones, and other materials to give the pieces dimension and an opalescence quality.
Brauns will be exhibiting as part of the Beverly Hills Virtual Art Show featuring live zoom studio tours, home tours, panels, and interviews with artists. If you are in the area, the show will also have limited seating on-site workshops offered by artists in the historical gardens of Greystone Park. The virtual show features art by over 240 artists from around the nation who will showcase their work virtually, including works in painting, sculpture, watercolor, photography, mixed media, ceramics, glass, jewelry, drawing, and printmaking.
Brauns Beverly Hills Art Show exhibit may be seen here. Go to her website to see more about her and her amazing work.
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About Karin Brauns
Karin Brauns is a mixed media painter who lets her love of nature and animals influence the images she creates. Usually starting with a subtle and sophisticated palette of color, composition, and texture, she finishes her canvases using a variety of materials including acrylics, oils, gold leaf, glitter, and semi-precious and precious stones. The result is a balance of realistic and dreamy expressions highlighted by a golden touch. Her current art series is based around wildlife conservation and endangered species, giving them a human quality, and yet maintaining a sense of purity. https://www.karinbrauns.com/
