Kari Tirrell is a contemporary still life painter living in Gig Harbor, Washington. Although she has had no formal art education or instruction, drawing was her favorite pastime while growing up in Huntington Beach, California. She was introduced to Norman Rockwell’s illustrations at a young age and was immediately entranced by the humor in his work and the animated, sometimes comical, faces and scenes he created. Tirrell taught herself to draw people by studying his illustrations.
While drawing was somewhat of a compulsion, it wasn’t something she ever thought of as a career path. Although she had never painted, after seeing an artist friend’s abstract work in 2006, she bought some acrylics and decided to try her hand at painting abstracts. Since she was used to drawing realism it was a challenge, but one she found highly enjoyable.
Tirrell was successful selling her acrylic abstracts online, but in 2008 she discovered soft pastel which married her two favorite things: painting and drawing. She started showing her pastel work in 2009 and excelled in the medium, eventually achieving the designation of Master Pastelist with the Pastel Society of America. In 2015, after taking her soft pastel work as far as she felt possible, she decided to change course and paint exclusively in her now preferred medium, acrylic.
“Not your grandmother’s still life” is how Southwest Art Magazine described Kari Tirrell’s work, and it would be hard to think of a more apt characterization. Tirrell’s current work focuses on tin toys, mostly made in Japan in the 1950’s and 1960’s, which she arranges in whimsical, sometimes even licentious, tableaus designed to engage the viewer’s imagination. Her work stands out not only because of its humor and meticulously rendered realism, but also because of the titles, which are often a play on words or an idiom. The toys are so full of character, she likes to think about how they might interact with each other if they were sentient beings, then creates a scene with a title to support it. It is also fairly common for her to think of a title first, then select the toys to create a painting around the title. Either way, the title of the painting is always part of the narrative.
“Traditional still lifes have never held much interest for me, so my goal was to find a way to create contemporary compositions that are uncommon, unconventional, and fun. Over the years I’ve transitioned from creating compositions with a complete lack of narrative to telling a story with my art in a way that amuses me, and I’m thrilled to have finally found my niche. I bring a playful approach to still life that allows me to do what I love while entertaining myself, and I really can’t ask for more than that.”
Kari Tirrell’s work has received many awards in regional, national, and international exhibitions and competitions, and has been featured in numerous art publications, including The Artist’s Magazine, Southwest Art Magazine, and The Pastel Journal.