The Corner of the Street Where You Live

Made by
Lady Karina Alexander

Karina is a second generation Californian turned Mull resident. She moved here in December 2019 and has been living the proverbial fairytale life ever since. With the support of her husband Graham, Karina renewed her passion for painting and drawing. Karina hadn't created anything more than music for decades. Karina's medium is, in general, acrylic paints and her canvas preference is Spanish Roofing slates. Occasionally she paints on natural, foraged items such as rocks, driftwood, shells, and anything else that speaks to her. Some items seem to appear and demand to be painted.
Karina's style is eclectic. She has an extensive collection of reference material that keeps growing faster than she can produce a completed work. She is most fascinated by nature and animals however, she has a deep seated need to stretch and improve her skills and also collects reference materials that look like they might make a good painting.
Calling herself an artist has been an incredible achievement. As a child, she drew horses. Always horses in many poses. She never felt they were perfect until Knott’s Berry Farm had a contest to draw a draft horse in harness for free admission. It was perfect… too perfect. She never entered it fearing it would be disqualified as a tracing. Entering into adulthood, she was told to find a real profession and stopped her art and music. At the age of 57, Karina took out her paints. Some were decades old and barely useable. She started painting rocks for the COVID project Comfort Pebbles. This was a UK wide effort to bring joy to those in hospital or care homes who couldn’t see loved ones. The rocks were painted on one side and left blank on the other so a family member could write a message on it. Then hospital staff would sanitize them and give them to the patients. This project was absolutely incredible. Each painter had to make at least 15 ‘pebbles.’ There was no guidance other than the blank back. Karina decided to stretch her skills and painted 20 different rocks as well as 2 plaques for the staff at the hospital her pebbles went to.
With this very rewarding endeavour behind her, Karina started branching out and experimenting with other things. She had painted a fairy door for the Comfort Pebbles and so she painted a few more. She made her first sale from one of those and acquired her first commission from another patron. All in all, Karina has been creating art for herself and the few local exhibitions that were available. She has shown at An Tobar for the exhibition ‘Hidden’ as well as the Highland Games exhibit at the Western Isles Hotel and at each has sold some or all of the art she exhibited.
Currently Karina resides on Tobermory with her husband Graham, three cats (Princess Patty Pat, The Duchess of Midnight Storms, & The Pearl Emperor) and their dog Seughie. She enjoys not only the art of painting and drawing, but the art of making her garden a place of beauty and bounty