Welcome to the "Gallery of the Watercolorwoman"

Karin Novak-Neal

I have been an artist and teacher for over 20 years, specializing in brilliantly colored watercolor florals and tropicals. My husband, daughter and I lived in Hawaii for many years which peaked my interest in brilliant colors and sensuous shapes and forms. One of the most challenging things for me are "close-up" paintings of the inside of flowers. I love the sort of abstract quality, even though it's very realistic.

I also work in acrylics, pastels and oil paints but prefer the freedom that watercolors have given me. Most people comment on the fact that my paintings are so brilliant, the colors are very bold for traditional watercolor. They are amazed that I paint mostly tropical flowers, living here in Colorado. Beautiful landscapes and wildlife might be the norm but I choose flowers over any other subject matter. And oddly, most of my tropical flowers sell to people living in colder climates. The paintings seem to make a whole room come to life, especially in the dead of winter.

My travels take me to Cadiz, Spain each year to teach painting classes. If you are at all interested in seeking information about watercolor classes in Spain or elsewhere, please e-mail me at karinzart@earthlink.net

My work has shown in galleries for a number of years, including Hawaii, Las Vegas, Sedona and Prescott. At some point I chose to have total control of my paintings and where I was going to go with my career. A friend and fellow artist told me about E- Bay and now my work has been selling successfully on E-Bay for a number of years, (refraining from selling during the summer months and instead photographing future paintings.)  We make several trips to Mexico each year and also visit the local botanical gardens for photographic reference material, as I am also a photographer.

Requests have come to me for commission paintings and I must be quite frank in saying that I do not enjoy doing commission work, as I find it confining and not creatively stimulating at all. I normally have a "feeling" about what I am going to paint and do so. I dislike being told what to paint and that's what commissions are all about so please don't ask. My art career started as a graphic designer, and I found that line of work very boring and way too structured for me. When I finally broke away from the mundane, the creative energy was released. 

Most of my paintings are very large. I have been using a specific packing company for my work for years and they are very good with their packing and shipping methods. After they have completed the packing, I go to their office and address each package myself, after inspecting the contents. This is a tried and true method that works for me. My work is shipped via UPS or FedEX, depending on location and if customer has a personal account they wish to use. Many paintings have been sent overseas, including Germany, England, Ireland, Canada, Australia, Japan and Israel. We have never had any problems with shipping to these places. Mexico has been a major headache, they refuse to insure anything any more, so we do not ship there any longer. Every painting we ship is insured and delivered to a verified address. Every painting is guaranteed to your satisfaction for up to 7 days after you receive it. A full refund, less the packing and shipping fee will be returned to you via PayPal.

Please read my feedback to see what my collectors are saying. My paintings can be seen in the collections of Japan Airlines, United Airlines, Motorola Corporation, Donrey Media Group, legal offices, and private collections all over the world.