ARTWORKSOFMAINE - Felted Wool

Amazing Felted Wool Wall Hangings

BY Karen Anne Baldauski

FOX IN BIRCHES, 37" x 72", $7800. FOX IN BIRCHES is one of Karen's felted wool wallworks juried into "Expressions", the 2019 Marin Society of Artists National Open Fine Arts Juried Exhibition in San Rafael, California. The juror was Paul Kratter.

THREE SEALS, 44" x 50", was also juried into the MARIN SOCIETY OF ARTISTS 2019 National Open Fine Arts Exhibition.

FORAGING PERIWINKLES, felted wool wall hanging, 38" x 25". Exquisite in its delicacy of effects and palette. The atmosphere by the sea is evoked using highest caliber techniques Karen has developed through experimentation with wool and silk fibers.

In an abundance of caution to help keep people safe during the Covid Pandemic, the ARTWORKSOFMAINE Gallery/store and Grange buildings have been closed to the public for 2020-2021.

For purchase inquiries, please click on "Contact Us".

"Her work should be hung in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYCity."

Karen is no stranger to the Metropolitan for she worked there briefly when she first moved to NYCity at the beginning of her professional graphic design career prior to living in England for 2+ years followed by her move to Maine in 1978.

Karen has mastered dyeing techniques since first exhibiting batiks at American House in New York City. Then she worked on floor to ceiling lengths of cotton and now she applies permanent dyes directly to wool before before the felting process.

"Two Loons", a work in progress (at the time of this photo) is stretched to dry in the wind.

In the winter, Karen creates smaller felted wool wall hangngs such as this one that was stretched and framed in red painted wood and sold through Archipelago (the Island Institute store & gallery), Rockland, Maine.

"Birches & Cardinals" is a wonderful piece of highly skilled felting technique. Roughly 70" wide, it can hang loosely against a wall and has the advantage of simply being rolled up for easy transport.

Beachcomber with his boat, scampering dog, hailing the fleet of sailboats on a summer day.

Detail, WATERFALL AND POOL, completed 2020 and available for sale when the gallery opens following the "all clear!" notification that the Pandemic has passed. This wall hanging is suspended from a rod and hangs 9 feet. A stunning piece.

SPRING

ENTANGLED, ENDANGERED LOON: 96" X 44" X 1/4". The loon in this very large felted wool wall hanging depicts the dire circumstance of entanglement in cast off monofilament fishing line. In the sea, whales too can become entangled in floating rope attached to buoys and mooring balls. When their movement is curtailed they are at great risk. Our fishermen and federal regulators are also entangled in constant battle with one another in efforts to reach reasonable guidelines for not only preservation of endangered species but also, preservation of the livelihoods of so many people who depend upon harvest from the sea.

ENTANGLED WHALE wall hanging is also 96" x 44" x 1/4" which can be seen in our gallery.

LUNA MOTH

TWO SEALS SWIMMING

SOARING GULLS

RIVER ICE JAM, large

LAVA FLOW, large

TWO SEALS, BLUE WATERS

HERRING GULL, TIDE POOL

MOUNTAIN LAKE, DEER, CARDINAL

SEALS, GRANITE COVE

SUMMER NIGHT, SUMMER HOME BY THE SEA

CARDINAL IN BIRCHES

WHALE, detail, very large, first shown at Univ. of Maine gallery 2010, one of Karen's first felted wool wall hangings, (with white silk backing, hand stitched).

DOE, BIRCHES, CROWS

BLACK BEAR IN BLUEBERRY BARRENS

This wet-felted all wool & silk wall hanging may hang loosely or be stretched and squared-up over a frame, depending on a customer's preference.

The swimmer may be exhibited horizontally or vertically, depending on a customer's preference and space availability. The piece may be suspended from a rod or mounted/stretched over a wood frame according to a customer's specific needs.

In her FIRST COMPETITION while still in college, Karen won first prize for her oil painting "Hope" at the Indiana Intercollegiate Salon of Art, a national competition. Her professor of painting suggested she enter a piece. The unexpected prize marked the beginning of her life developing a career in the arts. Her creative works span the worlds of painting, drawing, serigraphy, and felting fibers. Her sculpture, a stand alone piece of 21 painted wood loons, is not for sale. The head of the DePauw University art department then, A. Reid Winsey, advised her following his course in freehand drawing live models: "Drop everything you may have planned and BE AN ARTIST!" Hallmark Cards recruited Karen for her first job straight out of college to work in their package design and engineering department which gave her the experience to move on to developing a career in graphic design in New York City, England, and finally to set up her own design business called ARTWORKS in Maine since 1978.