Category: Karen Hilliard Art Blog

As the waves crash in on the shoreline, they make a majestic sound. The sea breeze hits the face with a light midst and a seagull calls in the background. The California Coast Series is very special to me because of where I grew up. A tiny beach town nestled into the sea cliffs off Highway 1 in California. Most days of the week were filled with foggy mornings and afternoons. I found so much inspiration on those gray colored days. Now that I am older, and living in a desert, my mind often drifts back to the ocean. Luckily, my family still lives in California and my sister in law takes beautiful pictures.

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I chose to do a series of paintings to reminisce about home. Number 1 in the series is painted from a photograph taken by Mandy Hilliard of the sea plants growing on the cliffs by the ocean. My brother and his family often go to this beach to enjoy the scenery and sounds. I chose this plant to start the series because it is filled with color and brings me much happiness. There were very few sunny days growing up, but the light would peak through the midst every now and then and touch everything in its rays. The sun brought so much color and happiness when it came out to say hello. Rainbows would brighten the days. This plant reminded me of all the colors possible in those magical moments. 

Number 2 in the series is of the waves crashing on the rocks during medium tide. Low tide has just come and gone and now the water is slowly creeping its way back in the late afternoon. I wanted to show the algae and the muscles growing on the rocks along with the water forming the sea foam around the subjects. I enjoyed her photograph having a little wave break between the rocks as well. This painting took many hours and was especially fun to recreate from the photograph. I hope you enjoy this series as much as I did painting these tiny paintings. If you have any questions, please send me an email through my contact page. Have a great week!

-Karen Hilliard

Oh the Rainbow Mountains!!! Yes, 3 exclamation points and should be more for the excitement we felt walking at 16,000’ to see them. We had an interesting experience to get to these mountains. The tour was booked before we left the USA through a different guide than our Machu Picchu trip. A pick up time of 3:45am at a church turned into us getting left and luckily picked up by a taxi at 6am. The bus had gone to our hostel by mistake and the company sent a taxi for us later when they realized we had been waiting at the church. We had warm clothes and were fine. I am so pleased we waited because seeing the Rainbow Mountains is something I will always remember.

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Chris and I had a lovely quick breakfast and then the ride to the top of the mountain. The oxygen was super low and the trees stopped growing at one point as we walked. We saw llamas, sheep, and horses. These people who work on the mountain are amazing! They pick people up at any point on the super hard to breathe trail and then take them by horseback up the mountain. Now, let me explain. The people hold the horse by the reins and run by foot up to the top of the mountain, then drop the rider off and run down the mountain for another fair. These workers do this all day long while tourists struggle to breathe just walking the trail. How impressive to be so adapted to that life.

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My fifth painting in the series is one of the mountain range. The trail to the top was brown, green, and blue skies. Once on the top the sky opened up, rained, snowed, and was really cold. We got just enough pictures before this happened. The colors of the mountain are breathtaking just as much as the hike to get to them. I did not have time to sketch up there because we arrived late but I am grateful for pictures, and the ability to paint from them later. The runners with the horses offered me a ride many times going up the mountain as I was not doing well. I made it walking thanks to Chris. Again, the best person for me to travel with or do anything in life with. I wish you all have someone fun and amazing to travel with. This place is worth seeing!

-Karen Hilliard

Peru is an interesting destination filled with glorious things to see. Chris and I decided to go ziplining through the jungle on the way to Machu Picchu as part of our package. We had not signed up for it but got talked into it by our wonderful group of travelers we met there. One of the once in a lifetime experiences we didn’t plan on, but oh my goodness, turned out to be amazing. I did not get a picture of this but was able to do a quick sketch in our travel book of Chris with his helmet on which I will share with all of you. After this great time, we continued on the trail to some hot springs where we again relaxed and I did a little painting of the mountains.

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We continued our hike along the Inca Trail the next day and walked along the railroad tracks. Chris had fun walking on the tracks and counting the rails. We forget what number he got to before he fell off but it was exciting and kept our minds busy while trekking the 19 miles that day. We would get out of the way and head towards the bushes when the trains came but got a really nice picture of one of them to remember this experience. I decided this would be Number 3 in the series of Peru Tiny Paintings. We continued this trail all the way to Aguas Calientes. The city that sits at the bottom of Machu Picchu.

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Number 4 in the series is a llama eating the grass on the tiers of Machu Picchu. The morning is filled with foggy midst and a quiet calm. I loved being in this place so early after hiking up 1,600 steps to the top. Each step is about 2 American stairs put together. We really had to hike our knees up to make the step and Chris is 6’4” and I am 6’1” and these were high steps for us. Entering the ruins was marvelous and seeing the llamas serenely chewing their breakfast instantly slowed my heart rate. This had to be the 4th painting. I really hope everyone feels calm when looking at it. 

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In the last blog I spoke of a wish for everyone to travel to Peru and I really hope it happens. The people there will stay in my heart forever.

-Karen Hilliard

Our honeymoon was spent exploring in Peru. My husband and I both wanted to travel to Machu Picchu and actually talked about this on our first hike together in Nevada. Luckily, after we said I do, we started planning this magical trip. We booked a hike through a travel agency which he and I had never tried before and it was quite enjoyable on all accounts. We came across many plants, animals, and adventures as we walked the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. 

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When we arrived at this wonderful place among the clouds we decided to hike around and see everything we could in the time allotted. We found a spot to rest and look at the ancient Inca ruins. I took out my watercolor sketchbook and a llama decided to come say hello. The creature was very curious about my paint set and lowered its head to sniff what I was doing. My husband took a picture of this lovely animal a little bit later as it was chewing some grass. I decided this would be my first painting for the Tiny Painting series of Peru. I just love how happy the animal seemed.

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The second painting in the series was from the hike to the ruins. Our group stopped at a lovely restaurant in the mountains with hammocks and a river to entice the senses. The owners of the place were wonderful and shared amazing food with us. As my husband and I walked around the building we saw many flowers. Luckily, one had this large grasshopper and I loved the bright colors of the flower and the insect. I was so pleased we were able to capture this on camera and later share with the world through watercolor.

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This was one of my most exciting trips I have ever been on and with my best person to travel with. We had so much fun, ate wonderful food, had many laughs, and saw so much of a wondrous place. To say we are grateful would be an understatement. The people in Peru are very kind and a true joy to be around. I hope one day everyone can experience this, just not all at once! If you have any questions, feel free to email me.

-Karen Hilliard

I would first like to say thank you to everyone who came out to Tivoli Village yesterday and braved the chilly wind. It was cold and my booth was in the shade almost the entire day. People were so kind and stopped to talk to us even though we all know that when you stop moving in the cold, you get colder. As we watched people swaying back and forth and chattering their teeth, my husband and I were just grateful that everyone took the time to care, ask questions, and show support to our booth. It truly was a magical day all around and lovely to see so many amazing people buying gifts for their loved ones at Christmas time.

As far as my artwork goes, it was a success!! Many ornaments are off to their new homes this holiday season and I hope they are spreading joy wherever they end up. The happiness on people’s faces was an amazing experience. I loved how these little creature ornaments sparked so many memories for customers and I enjoyed listening to their stories about why they picked the animals they did. I had two different people buy raccoon ornaments for the same reason. They both knew someone who was having a raccoon steal the food they left out for their cats. Two different parts of the world, and the people did not even know each other existed, but the ornaments were bought for the same reason! I love how connected we all are.

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My new pillow products sold and brought up many conversations as well. The water bottles were enjoyed by many and everyone loved the sunflower with the bee. I had some more options of single Greeting Cards that people enjoyed and the magnets did well as usual. I will have those up on the website shortly as I have been busy on the ornaments. One of the Witchy Acres Series 1 Tiny Paintings sold and 10% of the profit goes back to the farm! The owner is super grateful for your support and he enjoys bringing happiness into your homes. He loves what he does on the South Carolina homestead!

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I also received a lot of inquiries about painting people’s pets. The answer is YES!! I love painting pet portraits. Please contact me if you are interested after the 1st of January. I am going to be spending quality time with family and dear friends. I may post about my art, or I may not, we shall see if I have any time to spare over the next 2 weeks. I will be focusing on enjoying every moment with loved ones! I will keep my blog writing up Monday, Wednesday, and Friday over the next 14 days though. I love writing to you all and appreciate everyone’s support. Thank you! Have a safe and happy holiday season!

-Karen Hilliard

Painting these ornaments this holiday season has been quite magical. I love bringing joy to others and using tiny paint brushes is always a fun experience for me. It has been lovely getting the acrylic paints out again and working on so many small canvases. As I created these ornaments, I fell in love with certain compositions. I decided to take these small paintings and make them again on larger 8” x 8” canvases so they could hang year round in people’s homes. The burro was the first one I decided to recreate.

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After the burro ornament sold, I wanted to paint this animal again. I love going out hiking at Red Rock Canyon State Park here in Nevada. We are met on the trail by wild burros on occasion and it is a wonderful experience. Our dog just sits and watches these beautiful beings as they eat, run, and play with one another. I decided to do a close up of the burro to show how much personality each one of them has. They are quite cheeky and love a little mischief. The next ornament I fell in love with is the bear.

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When I recreated the bear on an 8” x 8” canvas, I decided to really focus on the fur and the color palette. This painting took a lot longer than I planned and the title came to me because the bear and I were both lost in thought while he was being created. The red and yellow mixture with brown to create a pigment of sienna in the fur was an interesting touch. Each color was mixed as I painted so every stroke has different colors if you look closely at the original. These paintings will be available as originals only.

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I decided not to make prints of these 8” x 8” because I like to have some paintings that are only available as originals. I hope everyone will enjoy these paintings as much as I enjoyed creating them. If you have any questions, please contact me via the website contact page. Thank you for reading and I hope to see you at Tivoli Village on the 19th!

-Karen Hilliard

These ornaments all started with the idea of joy. Each December I am reminded of decorating the tree with my family and how wonderful this time of year is. We have ornaments from every year since we were born and reminisce through the moments of time. My sister loves having ornaments with dates on them to remember the year and this is why I dated the back of each ornament I made this year. I wanted to bring the excitement and happiness I share with my family every year to each of your homes. I decided to paint woodland animals, farm animals, and desert animals as well as desert scenes. 

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Raccoons are fun and mischievous as well as scary at times. They are cute but also have that mask for a reason. This animal can tend to be little thieves so I tried to show this in each ornament. The raccoons all appear to be helping decorate the tree but they can also be stealing the ornament off the tree. Perspective is an amazing thing and I love how we all look at the world a little bit differently. I would implore you to look at these like the animals are helping to decorate as this is the season for kindness, sharing, and caring. The bears have come out to climb the trees with their strength and mighty claws to help decorate. The mice are doing their very best for how small a creature they are. Foxes are having fun and some are just laying around trying to stay warm after working tirelessly to make everyone smile.

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The Burro is just being cheesy and the Big Horn seems to be more hungry for the Juniper Tree than a help. The Jackrabbit and Deer got into the lights and tangled themselves into a mess. They are trying their best and we have all been there with the lights. Getting those strings untangled can be quite difficult but they will not give up until your homes are bright and cheery this holiday season. The owls are hooting around and flapping through the trees. They are the wisest and have many clever ideas on how to get the job done. Last, we have one burro just walking along in the desert under a beautiful purple night sky. This ornament reminds me most of my mother’s manger scene she has lit every year. This has always calmed me and I put that energy into the burro ornament with subtle lights from the night sky, and a softness on the fur of the creature.

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I have a limited selection on the website for people who do not live locally and shipping/packaging is included in the price. The rest will be available at Tivoli Village in Summerlin on December 19th from 10am-4pm. Please contact me for information if you need it. I have really been enjoying creating these treasures. Thank you all for your interest in these. I hope your holidays are blessed and bright. May you all have a magical season.

-Karen Hilliard

The owner of Witchy Acres Farm in South Carolina was kind enough to have each Original Watercolor scanned for Prints!! All 10 paintings are available to purchase as 5” x 7” prints on the website. I also have some bags available with the farm images on them. The series finished with Number 9 and 10. The last two paintings were of the animals on the farm that are special to the owner. The chickens in Number 9 were very challenging to paint.

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This painting had many birds involved with various activities in the photograph. I picked and chose a composition to add as many chickens as I could in a 4” x 6” Tiny Painting space. I wanted to show only certain positions due to the title of, “Who Just Clucked?” The painting has no sketch prior to the paint being applied. The main focus point of the hen in the middle was done first and then the chickens in a direct line behind her were completed next. The birds to the right of her and the background hay color was then applied. The bigger chicken to the left came after the floor color and the three ladies in the back were last. This painting took way longer than I had planned and I finished it after 8 hours.

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Number 10 ended with his beautiful goat and her long horns. She was just relaxing on the leaves in the middle of the road. The goat was created in an impressionistic style combining the colors of her with the floor covering. If you stand back, the painting becomes more clear and the goat pops forward. She was painted very late at night with a low lit lamp but I am very pleased with how it turned out. I wanted the background trees to appear wispy and light and the shadows to remain in the road. Developing her horns were difficult, as I worked with the negative space, to bring them forward. I hope you all enjoy this series and know how much time was put into each of these Tiny Paintings.

Thank you for reading. Please email me with any questions especially if you would like a larger print of any painting. Anything is possible and I am here to make sure you get what you like. 

I will always try to help in any way I can!

-Karen Hilliard

My watercolor paintings are mostly inspired by climbing, camping, and hiking adventures. Trees and rocks have intricate lines that are molded and shaped by wind, rain, and time. I have always loved climbing and bouldering yet found challenges while trying to complete problems. It is very important to climb with like minded people who have a similar vibe or it can ruin the experience. I had no idea how wonderful climbing truly was until I climbed with encouraging people regularly. Now as I climb, I become filled with joy and see more images in the rocks which I later use for my paintings. 

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My dog Mick was the best climbing buddy when it came to bouldering. He would wait at the bottom of a problem or he would meet me at the top if he was able. I thoroughly loved when he came with me and I miss him everyday. My cousin is also a very amazing climber and person who encourages my paintings with her own ideas. She is a joy to rope climb with and keeps everything calm. My husband is wonderful, and supports every aspect of my life. I now have a deeper connection to nature and joy for life that I did not know I was missing.

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Today he and I woke up and ran, I went climbing while he was at work, then Spector and I went on a long hike. The dog’s first time coming to the boulder field with me was today and he did fantastic! These people and animals have touched my life in such a wondrous way for which I am forever grateful. I am excited for the new creations of rock formations and trees that will be flowing out of my paintbrush soon. There are so many lovely structures to see on this Earth and I look forward to enjoying them with these amazing people. Happiness sparks the fire of my creativity and enhances the colors of my palette. The next climb, camping trip, kayaking adventure, hiking experience, or travel excursion is going to be stunning and I cannot wait to see what will be created.

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Thank you for reading. I hope you all have an awesome person or pet to adventure with. My goal is to encourage others to go outside and see this spectacular world.

-Karen Hilliard

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Hiking Red Rock Canyon in Las Vegas Nevada is one of my favorite things to do. I have traveled around a lot, and out of all the places on the planet, my mind always wanders back to these trails no matter where I have moved. The desert paths are filled with pinecones from the Pinon Pine Trees along the trails. These pinecones are lovely and sometimes have pinon nuts inside them if you can get to them before the ground squirrels. They are a type of pine nut and have a different flavor. The Native American Tribe, Southern Paiutes, used to forage in the desert for these very nuts. I love the way the pinecones look as they open. I zoomed in on the inside of the pinecone and focused on the scales, and the sand particles that blew on their surface.

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I started both pinecones in this series with darker colors and then painted the lighter ones all while leaving the whites untouched. I turned these two paintings into greeting cards because they reminded me of winter and the holidays coming up. I thought these cards would be perfect for Christmas. Along with the two pinecones, I also found the Juniper paintings quite fascinating. The trees resembled the pine trees of Fir forests and the Juniper cones looked like Christmas ornaments when I was finished painting them. I especially liked blending the colors of Cerulean, Windsor Blue, Permanent Alizarin Crimson, and creating violet colors. I love the soft blend of the berries with the intricate lines of the pine needles.

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The last painting of the series that I added to the Greeting Cards of Red Rock Canyon was the Yucca Plant. This painting was one of the first that I created with a time lapse video. I used Windsor Blue and Burnt Umber to create a dark brown, almost black, color. This painting started out looking like an ink drawing and then I slowly added in the green pigments. Olive Green, Hooker’s Green, and Lemon Yellow were used to show the plant leaves. I also added Burnt Sienna for some spots and shadows in the green to show the plant was aging. The whites were left to represent the fine fibers of the Yucca plant. I painted the negative space around where I wanted the whites to show. This was very difficult and took a steady hand. I stared at the photograph while I was painting the negative space.

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This whole series was wonderful for me because these paintings came from my husband’s and my favorite trail which brought back many happy memories. I hope you enjoy these cards and sharing your memories with loved ones.

-Karen Hilliard