Karen Sinclair Willis Art

Karen is originally from the beautiful Shetland Islands. She was brought up 100 metres from the sea. I wish you could see this incredible view across the bay. 

This amazing inspiration combined with raw talent resulted in the artist Karen Sinclair Willis. As a child she painted, and her granddad made the frames, and the paintings flew off the walls to visiting tourists. Amazing sunsets and seascapes became Karen’s forte. 

Karen received the highest award from her school her art and was destined to go to the world-famous Glasgow School of Art, however, she followed her best friend down to an art college in Hereford. 

From there she studied art photography in Derby under renowned photographer John Blakemore who really loved Karen’s composition of photographs. 

Following university, Karen pursued her first love of painting, however it was not for several years of honing her craft, that she was discovered by the Tallantyre gallery who displayed Karen’s work at the Affordable Art Fair in Battersea, London. 

Since then, many doors have opened for Karen. She has shown work in London, Dublin, New York, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Newcastle at the Biscuit Factory. 

Karen’s work is collected by many people all over the world – UK, Europe, New Zealand, and Australia, including Northeast businessman Sir Peter Vardy. One highlight was meeting Prince Charles to present one of Karen’s paintings to him, which is now in the Royal collection at Clarence House (see picture). Steve Jones the presenter from Formula One also has one of Karen’s original paintings.

Karen is excited to be having work displayed here in Shetland and will later be having an exhibition on the island of Harris called “Island Embrace”.

In the last few months, Karen was living in Spain, and she worked with a gallery Aurum Altea Gallery, where she became the artist in residence. Karen has since returned home and is working towards her exhibition in Harris later this year (2025).