Work samples

  • Work Sample 1
    Work Sample 1
    oil on panel
  • Work Sample 2
    Work Sample 2
    Oil on Panel
  • Work Sample 3
    Work Sample 3
    Oil on Canvas
  • Work Sample 4
    Work Sample 4
    Oil on Panel

About Karl

Baltimore City
Born, Dublin, Ireland. Karl came to Baltimore in 1992 to study under Grace Hartigan at the Hoffberger School of Painting, MICA, and has been a city resident ever sinse. Karl showed with the C. Grimaldis Gallery for 16 years and currently manages his own studio practice. His work has been shown in many group and solo shows over the years at private, commercial and public spaces. Notable venues include The Contemporary, Chrysler Museum, Penn Station NYC, Walters Art Gallery. Collections include… more

New Paintings 17/19

Ongoing studio practice. 
  • Studio Shot
    Studio Shot
    Dreamcatcher - Oil on Canvas - 104" x 82" - 2018
  • Shite and Onions.jpg
    Shite and Onions.jpg
    Oil on Canvas, 19.5" x 40", 2018
  • Drift 5
    Drift 5
    Oil on Panel, 14" x 11", 2018
  • Drift 2
    Drift 2
    oil on Panel, 14x11, 2018
  • Butter
    Butter
    Oil on Panel, 11" x 14", 2018
  • Dreamcatcher
    Dreamcatcher
    Oil on Canvas, 104" x 80", 2018
  • Slide
    Slide
    Oil On Panel, 14"x14" 2017
  • Hover 1
    Hover 1
    Oil On Panel, 10"x 9" 2018
  • Drift 4
    Drift 4
    Oil On Panel, 10"x8" 2018
  • Knead
    Knead
    Oil On Panel, 10"x 8" 2017

Stripes - Ongoing.

Ongoing inquiry - straight stripes, diagonals to push edges, combinations etc etc - all little machines.
  • Lean 3.
    Lean 3.
    Oil on Panel, 10" x 10", 2016
  • Slide 7
    Slide 7
    Oil on Panel, 18"x14", 2017
  • Drift
    Drift
    Oil on Panel, 20"x16", 2016
  • Covfefe
    Covfefe
    Oil on Canvas, 32" x 46", 2018
  • Lean
    Lean
    Oil on Panel, 8"x8", 2014
  • Fracture
    Fracture
    Oil on Panel, 58" x 40", 2014
  • Lean 4
    Lean 4
    Oil on Panel, 10"x10", 2017
  • Barn
    Barn
    Oil on Panel, 16"x16", 2016
  • Fold 4
    Fold 4
    Oil on Panel, 10"x8", 2017
  • Slide
    Slide
    Oil on Canvas, 32" x 78" 2007 - 18,

Stripes 2010-2016

During this period, I began toying with conventions I played around with almost a decade earlier, even if the general concerns have remained somewhat the same regardless of form. I am fundamentally interested in how a picture "works". I think of a painting as a mechanical thing of sorts. Images make the eye and the mind move in peculiar, though specific ways. I'm a formalist at heart, always have been. I see no difference between an image that is, conventionally speaking, representational, and one which is in the same manner abstract.

An image is a mythic space regardless of form. In the simplest sense I want my images to do something, to move, to push me around. In representational images I think of this happening through the types of associative spaces we all naturally attach to semi-familiar places and objects.

In these more recent stripe paintings the relationship is much more direct and assertive. As always, I simply make the work I want to see. I still believe there is work to be done in painting...
  • Studio with Beacon - 2012
    Studio with Beacon - 2012
  • Alice in Wonderland.
    Alice in Wonderland.
    Oil On Panel, 12"x32" 2012
  • Desordre (Ligeti)
    Desordre (Ligeti)
    Oil on Panel, 2015, 6" x 22"
  • Beacon
    Beacon
    Oil on Canvas, 62" x 84", 2012
  • Big Truck
    Big Truck
    Oil On Panel, 10"x40" 2013
  • Glimer
    Glimer
    Oil on Panel, 9"x24", 2012
  • Hum 4
    Hum 4
    Oil on Panel, 60"x40", 2010
  • Slip
    Slip
    Oil on Panel, 60"x40", 2010
  • Hold 2
    Hold 2
    Oil on Panel, 60"x40", 2010
  • Redline
    Redline
    Oil on Panel, 8"x 48", 2013

Stripes 2010 - 16 (2)

  • Pivot
    Pivot
    Oil on Panel, 10"x8", 2016
  • Ghost 1
    Ghost 1
    Oil on Panel, 18" x 12", 2016
  • Autumn Walk
    Autumn Walk
    Oil on Panel, 19" x 84", 2011
  • Hum 8
    Hum 8
    Oil on Panel, 38" x 50", 2010
  • 3 Towers
    3 Towers
    Oil on Canvas, 42" x 34", 2011
  •  Gruffalo 1
    Gruffalo 1
    Oil on Panel, 38" x 52", 2010
  • Drop
    Drop
    Oil on Canvas, 52" x 36", 2012
  • Hum 2.
    Hum 2.
    Oil on Canvas, 60" x 62", 2011
  • Six
    Six
    Oil on Canvas, 84" x 32", 2011
  • Sweep
    Sweep
    Oil on Panel, 14" x 16", 2012

Early Stripe Paintings 1999 - 2004

Between 1999 and 2001 I was working to explore notions of economy in painting, distilling elaborate conventions down to more elemental decisions. Initially these paintings were derived exclusively from photography as I played with retaining a concrete evocation even as the image itself disolved. In time they became stand alone formal Paintings which simply emerged through the process of the mark-making itself, with no pre-ordained order, hue or rhythm. They are beautiful paintings and develop quite literally through a conversational process.
  • Cow Painting
    Cow Painting
    2001 o/c 30"x40"
  • Cow Painting 5
    Cow Painting 5
    2001 o/c 32" x 48"
  • Slide
    Slide
    2001 o/c 48"X30"
  • Bend
    Bend
    2001 o/c 30" x 40"
  • Push
    Push
    2002 o/c 30"x 40"
  • Float
    Float
    2003 o/c 32" x 46"
  • Pin
    Pin
    2002 o/c 50" x 84"
  • Landscape
    Landscape
    2002 o/c 24" x 84"
  • Shift
    Shift
    2001 o/c 36" x 48"
  • hum 52x54
    hum 52x54

Stories, of sorts. 2004 - 2013

The work included here represents samples of work from a 9 year period where I was playing with the natural interplay between the surface of the canvas and illusionary space it tends to contain.  As a painter I've always believed in simply making the work I want to see.

I am interested in how an image works; in how an image, though perfectly static is experienced in what might reasonably be called contemplative time. My method of practice has generally revolved around the idea of making a body of work based on current interests and aesthetic needs. Earlier work relied heavily on the ironic use of iconography and procedural conventions tied to 17th European painting. In time both my palette and my content shifted as I continued to refine my relationship with painting.

The broad interrelationships between painting and photography played a central role in my work for a number of years. I worked with a reduced palette and began to play with blur, distortion and depth of field notions. In time this led to further reductions in surface conventions resulting in a body of work which relied entirely on repeated sequences of transparent vertical marks, where the only variable was color. These Stripe paintings ran their course but as I returned to representational conventions the surface was still something I want to play on. From here I have slowly returned to procedural conventions more directly related to work I was making many years ago. Painting is a strange game. (2013).
  • Sill
    Sill
    2009 o/c 20"x84"
  • 3 little piggies
    3 little piggies
    2009 o/c 66"x68"
  • Blow
    Blow
    2009 o/c 30"x30"
  • House
    House
    2009 mixed media - 9"x12"
  • Thinking Space
    Thinking Space
    2009 o/c 32"x48"
  • Unidentified Flying Object
    Unidentified Flying Object
    2009 o/c 32"x48"
  • View from the Hill
    View from the Hill
    2009 o/c 32"x48"
  • Visit
    Visit
    2009 o/c 32" x 48"
  • Lean
    Lean
    2009 mixed media 9"x12"

Figure 1990 - 97

I  worked with the figure on and off for years, and as a younger painter was known primarily for large figurative images fused with Baroque conventions. No surface is as charged with the history of painting as the evocation of flesh. To paint the figure is to speak directly to history.
  • Ouroborus
    Ouroborus
    1995 o/c 96"x84"
  • Bidoing
    Bidoing
    1995 o/c 72"x84"
  • Emperor 7
    Emperor 7
    1998 o/c 102"x96"
  • Still Life with Lemon
    Still Life with Lemon
    1996 o/c 60"x62"
  • Dionysus
    Dionysus
    1997 o/c 54"x84
  • Parody
    Parody
    1998 o/c 84" x 96
  • Point
    Point
    1998 o/c 72"x84"
  • A Matter of Time
    A Matter of Time
    1998 o/c 72"x84
  • Slip
    Slip
    1997 o/c 48" x 58"

Landscape 1990 - 2012

I never paint from life and I never paint specific places. My landscapes have always been constructions of sorts, conjured up spaces whose form is dictated by the story I'm looking to find. I think about the landscape as a dwellable space, a thinking space. 
  • Landscape with Stone
    Landscape with Stone
    1994 o/c 9"X12"
  • Depth of field 7
    Depth of field 7
    1996 o/p 8" x 8"
  • Ben Bulben
    Ben Bulben
    1997 o/c 46" x 54"
  • Depth of Field 28
    Depth of Field 28
    1999 o/c 30" x 18"
  • Landscape with Dots
    Landscape with Dots
    1997 o/c 22"x22"
  • Ploughed Field
    Ploughed Field
    2007 o/c 36" x 48"
  • Ploughed Field #2
    Ploughed Field #2
    2007 o/c 72" x 72"
  • Landscape with Bowl
    Landscape with Bowl
    2007 o/c 72" x 68"
  • Bend
    Bend
    2008 o/c 32"x48"
  • Ocean with 2 Cars
    Ocean with 2 Cars
    2007 o/c 62" x 64"

Objects 1992 - 2011

At times I like to simply paint an object, to focus on its surface, its form and the space it defines around itself. There is something simple and elegant in this. Realism is not the game.
  • Hat Painting
    Hat Painting
    1995 o/c 9" x 18"
  • Basket Of Fruit
    Basket Of Fruit
    1995 o/c 42" x 48"
  • Still Life with Mushroom
    Still Life with Mushroom
    1996 o/c 18" x 14"
  • Still Life with Mushroom 2
    Still Life with Mushroom 2
    1996 o/c 18" x 14"
  • Meat # 4
    Meat # 4
    2003 o/p 16"x16"
  • Meat # 5
    Meat # 5
    2004 o/c 24" x 30"
  • duet2005
    duet2005
  • Double Duck
    Double Duck
    2006 o/p 16" x 22"
  • Overpass 3
    Overpass 3
    2008 o/c 16" x 16"
  • Overpass 7
    Overpass 7
    2008 o/c 28" x 36"