Karen Lee Crenshaw
Karen Lee Crenshaw has been drawing since she used to scribble on the walls as a child.” She has been painting with oils since her teen years and has taught art to all ages from kindergarten to senior citizens. She has fallen in love with the beauty of North Carolina. Marshes, rivers, lakes, and the vessels that sail upon them capture her eye. Karen paints these scenes en plein air and in her studios in Jacksonville and at ArtExposure in Hampstead, NC. In addition to landscapes, Karen accepts portrait commissions, specializing in portraits of women and children.
Biography
Karen Lee Crenshaw has been drawing since she used to scribble on the walls as a child.” She has been painting with oils since her teen years and has taught art to all ages from kindergarten to senior citizens. She has fallen in love with the beauty of North Carolina. Marshes, rivers, lakes, and the vessels that sail upon them capture her eye. Karen paints these scenes en plein air and in her studios in Jacksonville and at ArtExposure in Hampstead, NC. In addition to landscapes, Karen accepts portrait commissions, specializing in portraits of women and children. Karen exhibits in several regional art galleries, and enjoys painting in plein air competitions, having been juried into the North Carolina Plein Air Festival for the sixth year.
Recent recognition for her art includes:
Dec 2025 Portrait Society of America Annual Members Only Competition, “Shimmer on the Slips” Tenth Place
May 2025 AIS Associate Member Online Exhibition, “Earl’s Girl”
Sept-Oct 2024 American Impressionist Society 25th Annual National Exhibition, Rockport Massachusetts, Caroline Anderson, Juror, “All in Pink”
May 2024 AIS 4th Annual Associate Member Online Exhibition, “Shimmer on the Slips” Wilmington, NC
Sept 2023 Suffolk Plein Air, Suffolk, VA, Best Nature Scene
Aug-Sept 2023 NOAPS 33rd Best of America International Juried Exhibition, Principle Gallery, Alexandria, VA, Principle Gallery, Alexandria, VA. Tony D’Amico, Robin Williamson, and Barbara Nuss, Jurors, “Quiet Reflections”
July 2023 American Impressionist Society 2023 Associate Member Online Exhibition, Rick Delanty, Juror, “Annapolis Boats on the Bay”
May-June 2023 NOAPS 2023 Best of America Small Works International Juried Exhibition, Mary Williams Fine Art Gallery, Boulder, CO, Denise Antaya, Cynthia Feustel, and Tim Breaux, Jurors, “Summer Morning on the Waterfront”
Sept 2022 Suffolk Plein Air, Suffolk, VA. Best Waterfront
May 2022 American Impressionist Society 6th Annual Small Works Showcase, Nightingale Fine Art, Taos, NM. James Richards, AISM, Juror, “Morning on the Waterfront
Apr-May 2022 Cape Fear Studios 2022 11th National 2D Competition, Cape Fear Studios Main Gallery in Fayetteville, NC, Dan Beck, AISM, OPA, PAPSE, Juror, “Discovering Ocracoke,”
April 2022 ArtFields 2021, Lake City, SC, “Tender House, Sunset”
January 2022 Nansemond-Suffolk Academy 34th Annual Art Show and Sale, Suffolk, VA
Sept-Oct 2021 OPA Eastern Regional Exhibition, Bradenton, FL, Katie Dobson Cundiff, Awards Juror
Sept 2021 Suffolk Plein Air Festival, Suffolk, VA, Honorable Mention
April 2021 ArtFields 2021, Lake City, SC, “A Sunset is Only Half the Story”
April-May 2021 Oil Painters of America 30th Anniversary Exhibition, California Museum of the Arts, Escondido, CA, “Quiet Reflections, Study”
November 2020 Fall Open Juried Exhibition, Finalist, Portrait Society of Atlanta, Atlanta, GA, Louis Carr, Juror
Artist Statement
A sense of place. That is the goal of my landscape paintings, for the viewer to “see” what I am seeing and to feel it is a place they have been or would like to visit. Plein air painting inspires me to capture the quality of the light that sets off that connection with the viewer. In recent years I have had work accepted in national competitions for the American Impressionist Society, the Oil Painters of America, the National Oil and Acrylic Painters Association, the Portrait Society of America, and ArtFields.