Painter and former owner of Hagan Fine Art Gallery, Karen Hewitt Hagan has carved out a life built on grit, curiosity, and the relentless pursuit of beauty. Born in Florence, S.C., and after a first career in television and radio, she’s spent years chasing light across continents. She’s led painting expeditions through Charleston’s salt marshes, the hills of Tuscany, the islands of the Bahamas, and the backroads of France. Her art is collected nationwide and held in prestigious permanent collections, including The Sanctuary Resort at Kiawah Island, The Seabrook Island Club, Seabrook Island, SC and The Yacht Club at Figure Eight Island, Wilmington, NC and the Motor Yacht for Baker’s Bay Resort, Abaco Bahamas. She also serves as a frequent juror for Plein Air Magazine’s national competitions.
“Karen has an innate sense of color and composition, and when it’s coupled with the way he handles the media, magic occurs.”
— Theresa Golas, Director, The Iredell Museums
Karen’s work was featured in a one woman show at The Iredell Museums, Statesville, NC in 2006.
She’s lived on land, she’s lived on the water; for years her home was a Motor Yacht named Plein Air—a floating studio that kept her pointed toward the horizon. And yet, Charleston remains the place that steadies her. “If I had to be marooned anywhere, it’d be Charleston,” he says. After nearly three decades studying the masters, teaching, and painting, she describes her work as loose, painterly, and unapologetically alive—full of color, movement, and light. She began her career as an impressionistic landscape painter, but she’s never been one to stay in a tidy category.
Her work currently leans towards the abstracted as she’s matured. Tradition grounds her exploration and fuels her, and every canvas is a chance to push further and create new, larger more imaginative pieces.
“The last fifteen years brought a lot of change, coming back to land, renovating several homes, founding and running an award winning gallery for fourteen years, selling it, and marrying the love of my life, Tommy Smith. My paintings track my heart. Whatever I’m wrestling with or grateful for—it shows up in the paint. I’m deeply grateful to be healthy, to be happy, and to be out there painting, teaching and leading workshops and retreats.” For the last four years, Karen has split her time between her studios in Charleston, SC and Pompano, FL.
Artist Statement
"My work is always evolving. Whether I'm in the studio working on large paintings or small paintings en plein air I work rapidly to capture my personal response to the landscape and the light. I find that that working quickly and intuitively, sometimes even with wild abandon helps me stay loose and free and leads to new discovery. And that's what it's all about." - Karen