Ardith Karlsen
Kalispell MT

Ardith Karlsen-Scovel was born in the village of Warroad, Minnesota just seven miles from the Canadian border. She has lived most of her life in Alaska, Colorado, Montana, and Washington. She finds inspiration for her artwork in the serene sunsets and majestically rugged mountains and has an intense appreciation of color and its power to evoke emotion. 

 

Karlsen-Scovel was originally trained to paint using oil paints which provided a strong foundation for the progression of her work. Acrylic painting was her primary medium with some watercolor for many years. Then, in 2007 she discovered a love of soft pastels and from that moment on soft pastels have become her primary medium in her current work. The soft texture of these soft pastels can create smooth, smudgy lines of intense or soft color. She is always being driven by abundant creative force to move to the next artistic level. Through passionate observation of the natural world around her, Karlsen-Scovel accurately details her work in a realistic style, a realism that designed to evoke the mood of the moment.  While her first love is painting the landscape, she enjoys figurative and floral work as well.

 

Karlsen-Scovel works in her studio from photo reference of familiar mountains, rivers, lakes, and waterfalls that she feels an emotional connection to and inspires her.  She  enjoys the challenges of Plein Air painting. The light is constantly changing, which gives painting on location a sense of urgency to get an accurate rendering of the scene before her.