about karin
Karin is a Netherlands-based portrait painter and Art Historian (MA) whose work centres on painting the invisible visible. In a world defined by speed and noise, her portraits act as a quiet rebellion, spaces of stillness, attention, and human presence.
Working with classical Old Master techniques and bold contemporary colour, she creates portraits that move beyond likeness to reveal inner life, emotional truth, and untold narratives. Her practice is grounded in social awareness, exploring themes of identity, belonging, and representation, while affirming unity through diversity.
Alongside human portraiture, she paints animals, often those on the edge of extinction, examining vulnerability, connection, and our shared responsibility. Across all her work, Karin’s paintings invite viewers to slow down, look more deeply, and reconnect with what it means to be human.
Karin is a Netherlands-based, classically trained portrait painter and Art Historian (MA) whose work is rooted in a quiet yet radical act: painting the invisible visible. In a noisy, accelerated world, her portraits stand as a form of quiet rebellion, spaces of stillness, attention, and deep human recognition.
Working primarily in oil, she combines Old Master techniques with bold, contemporary colour, allowing tradition and transformation to coexist on the canvas. Her portraits are not mere likenesses but encounters, revealing inner life, emotional truth, and the unseen narratives carried within each subject.
Her dedication to portraiture emerged from a profound personal turning point. Reaching rock bottom became a moment of recalibration, reopening art as a transformative force, personally and socially. This lived experience informs her practice, grounding her work in empathy, resilience, and awareness.
Social consciousness lies at the heart of Karin’s work. Through portrait series and long-form projects, she explores themes of identity, representation, and belonging, creating space for dialogue where simplification and judgement often prevail. Her work consistently affirms unity through diversity, and transformation through seeing.
Alongside human portraiture, Karin also paints animals, particularly those teetering on the edge of extinction, exploring presence, vulnerability, and our responsibility as humans. Increasingly, her work reflects the deep, often unspoken connection between humans and animals, where mutual trust, attention, and recognition unfold beyond language.
Recently, Karin returned to daily sketching as a foundational practice. This renewed focus led to the development of The Observational Sketching Method, an after-school course designed to teach young people how to see, cultivating patience, perception, and embodied attention in contrast to habitual screen-based scrolling. Additional art courses for all levels are available at
https://onlineartseducation.co.uk
Across portraiture, animals, and education, Karin’s work is guided by the values of unity, diversity, and transformation, and by the belief that attention is an ethical act. Her paintings invite viewers to slow down, look again, and rediscover connection in a world that rarely pauses.