Born in Uganda, daughter to a civil engineer, her family lived almost a nomadic existence, moving around East Africa to wherever a road or bridge was needed. Home, in those early years was often a prefab wooden site hut with lions and hyenas breaking the sounds of the night and constant attacks on the chicken house from various breasts. With no towns or cities around for hundreds of miles, Karen and her siblings would draw to entertain themselves. These memories of Africa's virtually unspoilt landscapes, teeming with game and magnificent views, were to influence her subject matter as an artist in later years.
