Karen Popham

Karen Popham trained at the Central School of Art and Design, now Central St. Martins, in London. She has always prioritised her work as a painter (accepting commissions from the age of fourteen!) while also working as an illustrator, muralist and teacher. She has been a Resident Artist at the Reform Club in Pall Mall, ending with a sellout exhibition, as well as the Laban Centre and the Lost Gardens of Heligan, for whom she illustrated two books. She has exhibited widely in six One Man shows and many public exhibitions, including the Royal Academy, the Royal Festival Hall, the Dulwich Picture Gallery, the Royal Western Academy and the Mall Galleries. Last year, one of her paintings won the Stanley Grimm Award at the Royal Institute of Oil Painters Open for the most popular painting, as voted for by the public. As a result, she was recently invited to submit work for consideration for a national prize winner’s exhibition – she subsequently won a place in ‘Beyond the Prize’, held at the Mall in April 2025.

Karen has now returned to the West Country, with a studio in Buckfastleigh. She is an active member of SWAc and also teaches in Dartington and Salcombe.