Kari Lehr lives and paints in the beautiful Crowsnest Pass in Alberta. After a  20-year career illustrating for various agencies, studios and corporations around North America, she now pursues her own vision out of her Coleman studio, working primarily in acrylic, often incorporating mixed media. When she’s not in the studio, she loves to scour the mountain countryside looking for bears and other wildlife to photograph, ponder and quietly enjoy.

“I am endlessly fascinated by the textures and layers which are found not only in the landscape but which comprise our relationships with each other and the mental and physical environment in which we live.
In this frenetic society we live in, I cherish the quiet solitude I often feel in my community which allows room for peaceful contemplation. Through my work, I seek to impart a sense of that stillness  which allows us to feel a connection to each other and the natural world.” Kari Lehr

Kari has always found comfort in the natural world, including a fascination with wild creatures and spaces.  Bears in particular have captured her imagination from childhood, where they were often present in the periphery of her dreams.  She feels a connection to bears and hopes that through her paintings the viewer too will connect to the joyful sense of respect and admiration she feels for them and all things wild.