About the Artist
Kara Doran
520/603-2294
Biography
I am a native Tucsonan with a lifelong passion for the visual arts and the Sonoran Desert. I attended school here from kindergarten through a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Arizona. Unlike many of my artist peers, I did not study art seriously until after leaving the university and joining the workaday world. While my interest in art has never wavered, financial needs had dictated a different path. My art education came later, specifically painting, through classes, private instructors, workshops, and plenty of studio time. 
The past seven years or so, I have had the great fortune of being mentored by a professional oil painter who began his career as an art teacher. He was instrumental in getting me outside to paint directly from the landscape and inside to paint directly from still life arrangements and models. Direct painting is what I enjoy the most: attempting to describe the landscape and impart all the joy, energy and peace that the desert landscape has to offer.
As a member of the Sonoran Plein Air Painters Society, I enjoy meeting other artists out in the field to paint and love to see their different interpretations of the landscape. I currently live in the Rincon Valley area of Tucson, Arizona, where I mountain bike and trail run for pleasure and to scope out painting locations.
Group Shows:
Sonoran Sizzle, Artists and Makers Gallery, Oro Valley, AZ, Summer 2021
Sonoran Light, Four Corners Gallery at the Tucson Desert Art Museum, Tucson, AZ, Spring 2021
Off to the Races Art Show, Rillito Raceway Park, Tucson, AZ, Spring 2019
Sonoran Plein Air Painters Society Show, Agua Caliente Gallery, Tucson, AZ, 2019
Mini-Max Show, Murphey Gallery, Tucson, AZ, Winter 2018
Little by Little Small Works Show, Toscano Studio and Gallery, Oro Valley, AZ, Winter 2017-2018
Feathered Friends Show, Toscano Studio and Gallery, Oro Valley, AZ, 2017
