A Bolton woman whose youthful ambition to be an artist was blocked has finally opened her own art gallery and studio at the age of 61. The Barn Studio Gallery, which adjoins Karen Holt’s farmhouse home on the moors above Bolton, is now welcoming art lovers. For Karen, this milestone is the culmination of a passion ignited in her youth but set aside for decades.
As a young girl at Smithills School , she was inspired by her art teacher, Mr Williams. "He was a very good teacher," Karen recalled, "He told me I should go to art college, but my parents insisted I get a 'proper' job." Consequently, Karen spent 20 years in the textile industry as a laboratory manager before concentrating on her family.
Despite the detour, the spark of creativity never left Karen. It wasn't until the lockdown, however, that she finally picked up her paintbrush and easel again. Immersing herself in watercolours, acrylics, and mixed media, she found a renewed joy in creating art.
Her subjects often include the animals she has bred on her small stud and farm for many decades, capturing their dynamic movements and energy. Karen's model horse helps her capture the perfect stance of her equine subjects “without the need for feeding or mucking out.” She has painted hundreds of artworks, drawing inspiration from the local landscape and her vivid imagination.
"I love returning to the same scene in different seasons," she said. Her work also includes contemporary abstract pieces and commissions. One of th.