Karin Taylor
Karin started out as a watercolour artist in the early 90's. She and her family lived and worked in the Middle and Far East. She volunteered as house artist for the Ragunan zoo whilst living in Jakarta.
After immigrating to Canada in 1997 her wildlife feather art was a part of the Western Art Show of the Calgary Stampede for15 years and has also been featured in TV specials for HGTV and Chinese/Canadian TV.
Currently Karin resides on the Sunshine Coast in BC and mostly hand sculpts bear and marine wildlife statues out of wood cellulose, they are coated in her special mix of bronze enamels and antique patinas. Her whimsical yoga bears are still a popular subject matter and a bronzed version of one her yoga bears commissioned by her home town of Gibsons on the Sunshine Coast in BC can be seen on the base of the Inglis Trail in Gibsons.
Her artworks can be found in galleries all over Canada.
How I make them:
My bears are are all individually hand sculpted from wood cellulose (imported from Europe) air dried and coated in enamel once dry, no chemicals are used:only water to mix the cellulose powder)
This year I have also started a ‘coastal’ version of the yoga bears: instead of a bronze enamel the coastal bears are covered in sand..
Apart from my armature the bears are basically turned back in to solid wood. Therefore they should not be shown outdoors permanently!