Karen has a career history of painting from the model. The act of figure painting and drawing is a discipline in which painters historically have participated, most often to hone their skills, as a musician practices his scales.

The abstracted landscapes contain a conceptual element which is usually inspired by the pose itself, or the environment around it, and sometimes from a direction that the act of painting inspires. Sometimes these abstractions are taken from previous drawings and paintings. Her paintings of the past several years (2007 – 2013) contain an element of drawing often with Conte crayon, pastel or graphite, as well as the paint. When they originate secondarily from drawings and paintings in the studio, a different direction is followed, often taking on an element of rhythm, and or repetition.