Karen Popham

After my A levels I did a foundation year at the Central School of Art and Design in London (now Central St Martins) and went on to do a Fine Arts degree there.
On leaving I did not want to continue in formal art education, but chose to work as a professional artist, subsidising myself with other work. Nor did I want to take up my place at London University doing a PGCE.

My first teaching job was when I was twenty two – teaching drawing to students on a foundation year at Colchester Art college.
I had my first one man show at a gallery in Oxford a couple of years later when pregnant with my first child. I have worked as a painter, illustrator, muralist and teacher off and on ever since.

I work primarily in Oils, as that suits me best, but am well versed in most other mediums and am learning about them all the time.

I have exhibited widely over the years. These include the Royal Academy and the Royal Festival Hall, the Dulwich Picture Gallery, the Mall Galleries in London and the RWA. I have also had seven One Man shows, mostly in London, but one in the Lost Gardens of Heligan as I was an ‘artist in residence’ there. I also held residencies at the Laban School of Dance, and at the Reform Club in Pall Mall.

When I returned to live in the West Country I became a member of the South West Academy of fine and applied art and have exhibited widely with them in many venues, including the RWS in London. I am currently a gallery artist at the Brownstone gallery in Modbury.

Recent successes include being presented with the  Stanley Grimm Award for the ‘most popular painting voted for by the Public’ during the ROI exhibition at the Mall Galleries in 2024. I was then chosen to show work in the Beyond the Prize exhibition held at the Mall Galleries in 2024.

I love teaching and I consider it to be an integral and valuable part of my artistic and creative life. I have always endeavoured to try and be the sort of teacher that I would have liked to have discovered at art college but didn’t find. I needed someone to teach me the craft element of art education in an informed and interested way, but ,more importantly, to respect and encourage my own individuality and foster any talent I had in a positive way.

Since then I have taught people of all ages and levels and have discovered, without exception, that if I can manage to do this, I come away from a richer experience and learn many things myself.