Karen Hertz-Sumnicht

Primarily working in cold wax oil paintings on wooden panels, Hertz-Sumnich has been making art for many years. She is the owner of Avenue Art on 3rd, a Sturgeon Bay framing studio and art gallery.

Karen Hertz-Sumnicht

IT ALL STARTED WHEN…

I was a little girl, sitting on the kitchen floor keeping my mom company while she cooked dinner. Now 50+ years later, making art is a yearning that I cannot fill. I earned a BFA from St Mary’s College, Notre Dame. And I continue to create. Today I am working to communicate the sense of awe I have for my surroundings. Trying to capture an instant, a breath, a brevity, moment by moment. Striving for simplicity, I wish to include the sense of timelessness verses limited time. I am using bolder pallettes, shapes, and layers to capture the atmoshere, air, water, wind, ice, rain, life.

I work back and forth on several pieces at one time. Creating a conversation between the paintings and myself. I like to stop, look, make decisions, reveal underneath layers and add more paint. The paintings take on a sense of history from the beginning layers to the end of the conversation.

My work is cold wax and oil on cradle board or paper.