Support for doctoral level students and research professionals at all levels of experience and industry backgrounds.
Other Interests
Painting Memories
Other interests - I have always integrated my interests as an artist into my academic professional and personal life. We all know the energy and feelings that creativity gives to our day!
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Art education: My formal and informal art background includes certified illustration, plus numerous onsite and ongoing online workshops and academies in the USA and UK presented by the best artists available! I enjoy a mix of online and on-site to get the best of both. ​
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My main style is realism and my subject(s) of choice are endangered wildlife and domestic pets and animals painted in traditional media (soft pastel, ink, colored pencil) or as digital art paintings.
2025! I have recently focused on creating a unique digital art design. In the examples below, I used my own photographs and created a single painting merging the photos with my digital painting skills and capturing my best memories of that place and time. ​​​​​​​There is a story behind every painting.
This sweet family dog loved the winter cold and didn't want to come inside so look closely and you will see I created him as an 'ice dog' painting standing beside 'himself' in a photo with the red leash.
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The winter landscape was cropped from a royalty free image I found online.
I used two photographs for the dog; the ice dog was my digital painting from one of the photographs.
Personality always matters - for all living things! And this captured the best of Roake that we all remember.
Copyright © 2025 KarenConger.net All Rights Reserved.
Copyright © 2025 KarenConger.net All Rights Reserved.
Five personal photographs were used to create this mountain scene with our three Tennessee Walking horses. The result is much prettier than the reference photos I started using. I painted a lot of highlights, lowlights, and blended as needed to create the new landscape. It is the image in my mind when I think about our time there!
Again, personality is the key. One of our Tennessee Walking horse loved to eat and in this picture, I gave her some grass! The other two Walkers shared alpha and beta personalities as required to protect the herd. No corrals, no fences. Just mountains in the distance and the beautiful fog covering the valley. And our alpha/beta pair ever watchful. Ever beautiful!
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The painting in this art focused on highlights and extra details after merging the photos and blending as needed to provide the best surfaces.
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Copyright © 2025 KarenConger.net All Rights Reserved.
Three of my personal photographs were merged and I added extra mist and fog, major highlights and lowlights on our horses, and cropping as needed to get another unique scene that provides my best memories of our space and horses.
Copyright © 2025 KarenConger.net All Rights Reserved.
My digital painting of 'boy' and 'dog' combined with my reference photo of 'man', 'boy' and 'dog' on the trail. The painting is intentionally out of scale to emphasize it. (Stars on photo faces were inserted for public display only.)
Copyright © 2025 KarenConger.net Some Rights Reserved.
The dog in the foreground is my digital painting. The background is a combination of two cropped and merged photographs. The dog in the background was cropped from one of my photographs. The park photo is cropped from a royalty-free online site photograph.
Wildlife and Animal Portfolio - Traditional (soft pastel, ink, colored pencil) and Digital Pen.
These are complete paintings working with traditional or digital media. The paintings above incorporate the photo(s) with the painting(s). The paintings below are pure 100% paintings using a reference photo or (multiple reference photos) as a guide! They take a lot more time, of course!
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All images and paintings - Copyright © KarenConger.net All Rights Reserved.
"Snow Leopard - Silent Guardian"
Soft Pastel
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"Przewalski's Horse - Faces the Storm"
Soft Pastel
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"Okapi - Velvet Ghost of the Forest"
Digital Pen
CA Mtn Lion 'Night Vigil'
Digital Pen
"Giraffa Camelopardalis - Tallest of All"
Digital Pen
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"African Elephant - Morning Call"
Colored Pencil
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"Grevy's Zebra Mother and Foal.jpg"
Digital Pen
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"Cheetah Cubs - Your Cheetah Eyes
Digital Pen
.jpg)
%20Tiger%20-%20Territorial%20(I'm%20watching%20you).jpg)
"Amur (Siberian) Tiger - Territorial (I'm watching you)"
Digital Pen​
![karenconger.net [Bobcat (lynx) painting]](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/6739ab_c5ab2db8adc5469a9d893a67a8f37229~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_180,h_170,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/Karen%20Conger%20(Bobcat%20In%20The%20Mist).jpg)
"Insight - Black Jaguar Mother and Cub"
Digital Pen
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"African Lion Cub - Born with Spots"
Soft Pastel​
"Bobcat In The Mist"
Digital Pen​
"Amur Leopard - Elusive Power"
Digital Pen
"Copper on Guard"
Colored Pencil
All images and Content -
Copyright © 2025 KarenConger.net All Rights Reserved.
Volunteering Activities
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Walden University and University of Tennessee
My undergraduate degree is from the University of Tennessee (go Volunteers!) and my doctorate is from Walden University, an accredited institution with a commitment to social change. Both universities emphasize giving back through community volunteering and I have always done that. My latest 'ventures' are shown below.
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CSUB 60+ Club, Bakersfield, CA
2025-2026 - Director
My master's degree was earned at CSUB while teaching in the Kern High School District in Bakersfield. "Founded in 1986, the CSUB 60+ Club is made up of people from all walks of life who are active, curious, concerned about their community and interested in lifelong learning."
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​United Women in Faith
Protestant Christian organization for women of all faith - United Methodist Church
2025 - Member - National, Regional, Local
As a Christian woman, with a variety of experiences in several protestant denominations throughout many professional moves over the years, my husband and I are now members of the First United Methodist Church in Bakersfield. I am pleased that FUMC has always been advocates for women empowerment through local, regional, national, and global community volunteering. They founded United Women in Faith long ago - and "driven by God’s love and united in sisterhood, ... work to improve the lives of women, children and youth. Every day, we show up. We take action. We get it done. And we invite you to join us."
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