Karen Kitchel's environmentally resonant works embody a deep and sustained effort to extend landscape painting practices into the world of today. Unconventional combinations of image, material, and form conspire to energize and subvert this traditional practice.

Her paintings are made of oils, asphalt emulsion, tar, wax, shellac, and powdered mineral pigments on canvas, panel, and burlap, in a wide range of sizes.  Emerging themes include agriculture, the horizon, regional botany and compromised waterways. 

Signature works are oil on wood panel, focusing on native and invasive plants, the vernacular of landscape worldwide.

Karen's paintings have been featured in exhibitions throughout the U.S., and are in numerous private and public collections, including the permanent collections of the Denver Art Museum, the Palm Springs Art Museum, the Joslyn Art Museum, the Nicolaysen Art Museum, The Buffalo Bill Center of the West, the Tucson Museum of Art, the U.S. State Department, and many others.

Her work is represented by Robischon Gallery, Denver, CO.