Karen
@willoaksstudio
Karen Stahlecker. Full time visual artist-currently watercolor painting. Progressive, feminist, environmentalist. Nature is my muse.
Saturday Farmers Market on the Woodstock Square…Best place for groceries around here💜Doesn’t get much fresher!
Dinky deck garden includes tomato & cucumber plants, which are getting kind of big🫣 Lots of herbs, flowers, & developing leaf crops. The developing jungle feeling is really delightful. And so far, pinwheels & peppermint seem to keep the squirrels away🙏🏻
Wikimedia needs our help-even small donations help!! I like the way they asked: did you find $2.75 in value from your visit today?
It’s the 5th anniversary of my wonderful Purrmeister’s passing…gone but never forgotten. R.I.P. little buddy❤️❤️🔥💔
It’s just pleasing to look at these old friends😍Orchids can live for many years, so when they each bloom, it’s like a friendly visit😅
Thinking of Spring-a selection of Spring flowers I planted to naturalize on the farm. Happy First Day of Spring🌷
A quick peek at the blooming part of my indoor garden in winter bloom mode😍
Hopefully we’ll purge the current unAmerican scourge so we CAN return to the urgent crisis of stabilizing-or at least more serious mitigation-of our environment. There is no planet B!!
Valentines Day!! I love our day of love. I usually make my own Valentines cards & here’s a random sampler💖💞❤️
I found this on Meta today & i thought it was pretty good, too. Share it, as it says!
It’s been hard to concentrate, but I continue to make small watercolors & turn them into greeting (Valentine) cards. As a friend would say, ‘Take your broken heart & turn it into art.’
Happy Holidays! I hope you & yours are having a chance to celebrate & be grateful for what is good in our dangerous, difficult world. 2025 is almost over. Prayers for peace & justice in 2026🕊️🕊️🙏🏻🙏🏻⚖️⚖️
Holiday ritual mostly completed: art cards, painted for winter holidays, addressed & written as greetings. I’m running behind on the schedule, but really happy that over 50 cards have been mailed! Bitter cold has returned after a rainy Thursday. Rumor is it will get warm in time for Christmas!
A fun challenge with pearlescent paints is how their looks change with the direction & intensity of light!
Autumn Joys 1 Sunny & Bibbs keep cozy. 2 Forest cactus in bloom 3 Orchids in bloom
The Art of the Land, an annual fundraiser for the McHenry County Land Conservancy opens Friday, 10-23 to Saturday 10-24. Juried exhibition, music, food & cash bar at the Starline Gallery❣️ Interesting story on this work-my collection of watercolors.
I’m preparing for winter floral painting by collecting beautiful images for models & inspiration🥰
Intrigued by the challenge of “a bouquet.” This will require more tries…
The Autumn ArtWalk was great last Saturday & was very happy with our turnout! Grateful to be settling back into a painting routine—doing exhibitions take a lot of time away from studio work! Great to get feedback on this new work, & added to my jewelry, there was a lot to look at😍
Inspired by today’s class exercise. It started with color tests & ended up here😂
New week of new work & I tried to make a reel—BlueSky cropping leaves a lot to be desired here. But what I LOVED about this series was my return to using high granulation watercolors💜. It’s another step to regaining brush control after a broken knuckle. I’m not fully back yet, but it’s progress❣️
Whew! Finally squeezed in some painting❣️ it often takes time to get back in the flow, so sequential days really help. Newest first & earlier 2nd. 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻