“Someone, Somewhere, Something,” is the title of Karen Warshal’s solo exhibition, currently on view at Gallery Blue Door. In the cozy and bright front room of the Mount Vernon gallery (833 Park Ave.). Warshal’s paintings are glimpses into intimate spaces, where a bowl of lemons, a bouquet of roses, and a basket of vegetables are portrayed with precision and careful attention.
The paintings on display include objects of ordinary life, yet they glow with what is extra-ordinary; elegant arrangements, clear and subdued color palettes, and vibrant, atmospheric light. This light bathes the subjects, whether the subject is a figure sitting for a portrait (the Someone), a landscape, quiet and serene (the Somewhere), or the aforementioned Still Life compositions (the Something).
A visit to Warshal’s studio makes it apparent that she is steady and prolific. The walls of the second and third floors of her Bolton Street rowhome are covered with canvases of people, places, and things that tell a variety of stories. She has completed a series of figurative canvases that tell Biblical stories. Other figurative portraits are strikingly straightforward and bold, with the figure looking directly out at the viewer. One aspect of her aesthetic that connects all her motifs is a desire for pleasing images. “I am after beauty. I know when the painting is finished because it is finally beautiful.”
The light that is so important to Warshal’s work enters her third-floor studio via a sky light, intentionally designed to be open to the northern light. “This is the light you want,” she says, “indirect light from above.” Under this skylight is where models sit every Saturday for figure drawing and painting sessions and through which the room fills with natural light.
Warshal is an absolutist when it comes to working from life. Between her models for portraits and objects for still lives, her work is all about observing life authentically. This is one thing she tells her students, “If you copy from a photo, it isn’t going to be as good, and you certainly won’t learn as much.” Warshal thrives in the process of drawing from life. To her, “my models are my collaborators.”
Warshal has lived in their home in Bolton Hill for over 28 years and in the Baltimore area for 30. Her husband, Michael Tobin, sometimes models for her and is featured in one of her paintings in City Hall. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania in the late 1970’s, followed by grad school at the Boston Museum School, she found herself in the greater DC area, studying at the Parker School of Structural Sculpture in Bethesda and later at the Schuler School in Baltimore for instruction in classical art.
Now, her art and her teaching connect her to MICA, where for 16 years she has taught portraiture and anatomy, classes that are sought after and always full. Her art and interests also have led her to spending extensive time in Italy, where she “accidentally” bought a house a few years back (you ask her), and where she leads art-historical tours through provinces such as Umbria and Sicily as well as to the major art centers of Rome, Florence and Venice. Fluent in Italian, Warshal is enamored with the work of the Renaissance and Old Masters. Her study of their work is apparent in the way that she uses the motifs and moods of the periods to make work that is both contemporary and classical.
You can learn more about Warshal’s work at karenwarshal.com. She has paintings in the 2025 MICA Faculty Exhibition through Oct. 19, a show at City Hall through Nov. 14, and at Gallery Blue Door through Nov. 22. See the BHCA Facebook and Instagram pages for images of Warshal’s work.
–Francine Marchese
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