About karen tranter

Born in 1975, Middelburg Mpumalanga, Karen now resides and works from her studio in Ramsgate, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. She works in oil pastel, pencil, colour pencil and acrylic paint as a medium and likes to experiment with different styles. Her current favourite themes include animals, portrait study and still life.

​

Karen’s art journey started at school, with art as a subject until Matric in 1993. She completed a Theatre Technology diploma at the Technicon Pretoria, from, 1994-1997 and received the “Student showing best progress” award for three consecutive years during that time.

​

She completed her B-tech degree in Theatre Technology at the Technikon Pretoria in 1999. She did a certificate course at UNISA in drawing in 2002. Karen completed her first year in Fine Art at UNISA in 2003. 

​

Karen started pottery in 2008-2012 under Marentia Kooiman, focussing on hand building and sculpting.  She continued from 2012-2018 under the tutelage of Minette Zaaiman at her studio in Brooklyn Pretoria. During this period, she was a member of the Pottery Association South Africa, and partook in some exhibitions.

​

She has done various commissions and exhibited in galleries in Pretoria.

​

After a twenty-year sabbatical she is back at practicing art full time. Karen participated in the World Wildlife Day 2023 exhibition at the Ramsgate Lions club. She has already exhibited her art at the Margate Art Museum twice and participated in the KKNK K4 Klein Karoo Klein Kunsgallery exhibition. 

​

Karen loves to work in bold, vibrant colours. She finds unusual perspectives inspiring. She enjoys working spontaneously and strife to keep her works vibrant. Karen is a dedicated artist and finds joy in the creation process and seeing people’s reaction to her art.

​

When Karen is not working on her next idea, she also enjoys doing animal portrait commissions.