"Of things past and lost - dans la cuisine #3 (Bleu)

Ready to hang - total size 42cm x 52cm x 3cm depth blonde wood minimal frame with acid free white mount and light weight Perspex, ''Of things past and lost - 'dans la cuisine (in the kitchen) #3 Bleu" (series of 3 - sold individually) has a sixties retro feel in typography and the use of colour. It is constructed and reworked with recycled, multi layered, hand dyed with organic dyes using printed papers and pages from vintage English, Australian and French cookbooks. Reutilising recycled papers to speak of the transient and impermanent nature in our our lives. Making a new story. I defy the notion that the personal and private in artmaking is self seeking or immature. Instead I diffidently use the personal as a starting point in my art making process. Like taking cuttings from a personal garden. This series 'Of things past and lost' looks at loss.

Although I finished my fine arts bachelors degree with a painting major , I embraced a more intimate and personal process which I find with collage, mixed media encompassing at times needlework and collage and small reworked domestic items.

Collage especially allows this reworking and pastiche to make a new story or 'paint' a new picture. I adore the process and opportunities that collage allows and embrace using and recycling vintage papers and magazines - currently vintage French fashion magazines and discarded books from the 1950's and 60's - the ephemeral and the discarded. That which is fleeting/ passing and impermanent and giving new life and form - a new story.

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Karen Coull  (born Sydney 1961)

BA Visual Arts UWS 1992

A recipient of a City of Sydney Work/Live Studio Residency, Karen has exhibited in solo and group shows in Australia, UK, USA and Europe over the past 30 years.

She is represented in a number of public Australian, UK and USA collections and private collections in Australia,  Europe, USA and UK.

Coull is passionate about the often marginalised, domestic/traditionally female art practices with a strong emphasis on analogue collage using vintage and recycled paper. Her current focus is on her journey of ageing and the invisibility of older women.

SELECTED recent exhibitions/prizes
2026 Finalist Burwood Art Prize
2026 Coupee Collage for World Collage Day - Belgium
2026 Finalist 'Remagine Art Prize' – Highly Commended
2025 Finalist Wollongong Art Prize
2025 Finalist Hazelhurst Art on Paper
2024 The Kanyer Art Collection and Historical Archive of Collage, Curator Freya Gowrley, PhD, Bristol University, UK
2024 Finalist Sunshine Coast National Art Prize
2024 The Views From Here - work from the Casula Powerhouse Collection, Yellamundie - Liverpool City Library, Liverpool
2024 Finalist 'Remagine Art Prize'
2023 Finalist Woollahra Small Sculpture Award
2023 Finalist 'Fishers Ghost Art Award'
2023 Finalist National Sunshine Coast National Art Prize
2023 “Collage”. BOXX gallery, Washington
2023 “A 45 Year Love Affair with Art: The Doug + Laurie Kanyer Art Collection. Tieton Arts and Humanities, Washington
2022 'Waverley Art Prize' - Drawing Prize Winner
2022 Finalist 'Fishers Ghost Art Award'
2022 Finalist 'Hornsby Art Prize'
2022 'Gosford Art Prize' - Highly Commended
2022 'Remagine Art Prize' - Peoples Choice
2021 Finalist ''Gosford Art Prize'
2021 Finalist ''Fishers Ghost Art Award'
2021 Finalist 'Biennial 'Banyule Award for Works on Paper'
2021 Finalist ''Bluethumb Art Prize'
2021 Finalist ''Waverley Art Prize'
2021 Finalist ''Remagine'
2021 'SPACE YZ'  Campbelltown Art Centre curated by Daniel Mudie Cunningham
2021 Collage. Seville, Spain
2020 Finalist ''Meroogal Women's Art Prize',
2019'Finalist 'NOW Contemporary Art Prize'