Biography of Karen Ferguson
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Born and bred in Whangarei, New Zealand, to parents Kathy and Garry Ferguson, Karen went to Saint Joseph’s Primary School and Pompallier Catholic College. As a child, she enjoyed the freedom of native bush as her back yard and spent holidays and weekends at their family beach house at Whananaki, in Maureeses Bay. in Northland. It is on those visits she developed a love for fresh seafood, the ocean and nature. On leaving school Ferguson's first employment was a hairdressing apprenticeship in Whangarei. In 1986, at the age of 18-years-old, Ferguson sailed on a 44-foot long American yacht Calypso from Opua, Northland, New Zealand, to Bundaberg, Queensland, Australia. Calypso was headed for Freemantle, Perth for America's Cup. Ferguson got off Calypso at the first port of call, Bundaberg, and the trip had taken eleven days. She soon settled in Brisbane with family, and then her first child Chloe was born. Ferguson worked for a cosmetic company selling cosmetics and then moved to the Gold Coast, Queensland, when Chloe was six weeks old. Ferguson continued to work in the Beauty Industry, working mainly as a Nail Technician for a 19-year career span working in various Beauty Salons and had a small mobile nail business based from Broadbeach. Ferguson lived and worked on the Gold Coast for 20 years, during which, in the year 2002, her son Lauchlan was born. For most of the 20 years living on the Gold Coast, she lived and worked in Broadbeach, raising her daughter Chloe. In 2006, Ferguson returned to New Zealand with her then 4-year-old son Lauchlan and raised her son on Auckland’s North Shore.
In 2013, Ferguson started drawing lessons with a desire to learn how to paint. She admired the old masters of the Renaissance and Baroque periods with a desire to paint portraiture with a contemporary art twist. Drawing school taught her observation skills, and after two years of training, she started studying Visual Arts full-time, completing a Diploma in Visual Art through Hungry Creek Art and Craft School in Auckland. At Hungry Creek Art and Craft School, her diploma training was in painting, jewellery and pottery with a short burst of sculpture. In 2018 Ferguson did a Bachelor of Visual Arts Degree through the Dunedin School of Art. She did her training with The Dunedin School of Art long distance from Auckland, and in 2019 Ferguson completed a Post-Graduate Certificate in Visual Arts. In 2020 Ferguson completed her Post-graduate Diploma of Visual Arts.
