Radical Impressionist: A Mathematician Paints

Karen at the Marigold Arts Exhibition: Return to the Rivers Karen Halbert is a full time landscape painter, primarily of the Southwest. She was torn away from careers in mathematics and computers to follow her life-long passion: painting. Though she paints in the Southwest, she also captures the images that permeate her dreams – of the powerful ocean waves of the Pacific, home of her childhood. Driven by the purity of elements of mathematics, found in areas such as dynamic symmetry and chaos theory, she strives to go far beyond her analytical training. The logic of composition and pattern is second nature to Halbert; she is free to experiment with other aspects that help her capture the underlying beauty of the natural world. Her training in the Classical techniques as well as Impressionism serve her well. She can concentrate on capturing the beauty of the landscape surrounding her. Driven by the light of the southwest, Halbert made a conscious life-style decision to move to...

Introduction I have written down some thoughts about my struggles in a male-dominated part of the world. I think these thoughts would be of interest to young women just starting out. Women have made great strides since my days but some of my stories could still be worth writing down, reviewing and perhaps reading. This effort was prompted by a request to do a STEM interview with high school students. BUT think of this post as a draft for now. I wanted to capture steps in my life without worrying about how it reads. If I were to publicize this post I would want to make changes. But for now read it as a series of steps in my life that have brought me to my current position, one in which I am happy to be marrying two passions in my life: art and math. Early Careers The stories of my life careers include choosing between architecture and mathematics in my freshman year of high school. Aptitude scores indicated that a career as an architect would be a good one for me. But our ...

Defining moments: January 2018: Realized that I needed to return to my second love, Mathematics to explore the connections between it and the passion of the past two decades: art and painting. Adapted the 'brand':  Radical Impressionist: A Mathematician Paints.  Planning exhibitions. May 2016.  Return to the Rivers , exhibition at the Marigold Arts Gallery.  My son Joshua met a world renowned author and chef, Vikas , at a major political event.  One of his books is titled “Return to the River”. While reading the book into the middle of the night I realized that I have always been drawn to rivers (and oceans).  I was very moved by Khanna’s activities, supporting women and children throughout the world. He has raised himself up from poverty to become beloved by the Dalai Lama, Obama, Hillary Clinton and now my son and by millions watching him on his cooking programs. Khanna also donates dinners to women’s shelters. Meeting him has opened up a new world f...

Curriculum vitae: 2016-2025. Awards. 2025 PAPNM National Juried Show Award for Painting with a Special Point of View, 2024 PAPNM Paint New Mexico Special Judge's Recognition, 2024 Masterworks of NM, 3rd Place -Oil/Acrylic, 2021 PAPNM Taos Award of Excellence, 2016 Plein Air Artists of Colorado, Award of Merit.   2012-Current. Webmaster, Plein Air Painters of New Mexico. 2025 - Handell and Halbert Weekend Workshop - Intuitive Composition and Dynamic Symmetry, Bluebird Studios, Santa Fe, NM 2024 - Handell and Halbert Weekend Workshop - Intuitive Composition and Dynamic Symmetry, Bluebird Studios, Santa Fe, NM 2024 - Current. Karen Wray Gallery, Los Alamos, NM. 2023 - Dynamic Symmetry Workshop, Bluebird Studios, Santa Fe, NM. 2016 – 2022. Marigold Arts Gallery, Canyon Road, Santa Fe. 2010-2018. Purple Sage Gallery, Oldtown, Albuquerque. 2005-current. Moved to Santa Fe from Woodstock to study with oil painting masters, Roger Williams, Doug Higgins, Bill Gallen and Albert Handell...

Plein Air Artists of Colorado Featured Artist Article of October 2015: PAAC Article – Karen Halbert Short Bio:  Karen strives to transform the beauty of mathematics into her art, utilizing her knowledge of areas such as dynamic symmetry, fractals and chaos theory. The “hidden harmony” of Karen's work is shown in her cloud fractals, wave patterns and stream flows as well as cliff striations and tessellations. Karen grew up in the West, but moved East as an adult to attend college and pursue a career as a college professor of mathematics and computer science, and later as a Wall Street executive. She eventually settled in Woodstock, New York to fulfill her life-long dream of being an artist, but ultimately was drawn back West to the artist-rich town of Santa Fe. Karen continues to use her computer skills as a volunteer Website Administrator for the Plein Air Painters of New Mexico. When did you first become interested in art? As a child, I loved...

Plein Air Artists of Colorado Featured Artist Article of October 2015: PAAC Article – Karen Halbert Short Bio:  Karen strives to transform the beauty of mathematics into her art, utilizing her knowledge of areas such as dynamic symmetry, fractals and chaos theory. The “hidden harmony” of Karen's work is shown in her cloud fractals, wave patterns and stream flows as well as cliff striations and tessellations. Karen grew up in the West, but moved East as an adult to attend college and pursue a career as a college professor of mathematics and computer science, and later as a Wall Street executive. She eventually settled in Woodstock, New York to fulfill her life-long dream of being an artist, but ultimately was drawn back West to the artist-rich town of Santa Fe. Karen continues to use her computer skills as a volunteer Website Administrator for the Plein Air Painters of New Mexico. When did you first become interested in art? As a child, I loved...