Florals and Landscape Paintings by Christine
About the Painter
Born in 1955 in south Somerset, I have been involved with art circles since the age of 17, when joining my first painting classes. Starting with oils and belonging to a class dealing almost entirely with the local Somerset landscape, I gradually extended my interests to produce work in pastels, acrylics, gouache, coloured pencil and acrylic inks. During a spell in the mid-90's of severe back problems, I began using subject material close to home....the garden. This led on to a steady run of some four years painting floral subjects almost exclusively.
In 1999 I joined a growing number of painters who were putting up personal websites showing their pictures. This eventually led on to the current website in 2001.
My annual production is shared between a few offline group exhibitions, one or two selected online galleries and this website.
Style of Work
My general style, since the late 90's has varied between traditional and more modern images. I also started working on larger canvas panels and exploring the use of acrylic. Flowers offer a wide variety of shape, colour and composition, allowing the creation of bold images for Internet sale and other, representational pictures for local exhibitions. More recent work has focused on garden scenes, mainly those vistas and hidden corners found on large estates. Changes, however, have been gradually taking place. This year quite a lot of pastel work has been done (although not all of it has gone online); some experimental work with acrylic and texture; a few larger landscapes in oils; while some imagination-work and abstract ideas have formed the backbone of a second website. These allow me to break away from the floral "pigeonhole" and explore totally different ideas. In late 2008 I am working on several oil-paintings, each of quite different subject-matter.My former working background is in scientific, technical and analytical laboratory work. I prefer, though, not to do exacting botanical painting. I do not generally follow trends, fads or topics-of-the-moment, working only on subject matter that I can relate and respond to in a personal way.
- 1974... Started art classes, first pictures exhibited and sold the following year;
- 1979... Shared local exhibition with three artists;
- 1980... First successful entries to Royal Bath and West Art Show;
- 1980 onwards... Support of various local exhibitions involved in charity fundraising;
- 1996... Start of flower painting, production and sale of first floral pictures;
- 1999... First website created at Cottagegallery;
- 2000 onwards...creation of second website; reintroduction of more landscape pictures;
- 2001 to 2004...Three Local Best In Show Awards; one for a still-life and two for landscapes; all pastel paintings. (However, I don't make a habit of entering art competitions).
- 2005... Continued establishment of artwork sales online and commission-work. First sales made to buyers in U.S.A
- 2006... Participation in Chicago-based exhibition, with a group of artists; displaying mainly small works no larger than 4 x 3 inches approximately. Further commissions for private buyers, single and multiple-panel florals; further sales made to overseas buyers.
- 2007.....A quieter year, heavily interrupted by family and household needs in the second half. However, a couple of commissions successfully completed during this time. The painting "Calla Curves" appeared as a support image in the book "The Acrylic Flower Painters' A to Z" by Lexi Sundell (Quarto Press).
- 2008....Ongoing, but including membership of several new online galleries.
General History:
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