Pop-Up with Christina Thwaites

Featured Artist, Christina Thwaites is the guest artist for Pop-Up beginning Tuesday, June 18 to Monday, June 24. Read on to learn more about her inspiration, her process, and her work.

June 18 to June 24

Christina Thwaites (1980) is a British painter, based in Orono, Maine, (USA). In 2004 she graduated from The University of Edinburgh (Scotland, UK) with an MA in French Literature & History of Art. Whilst living in Paris she attended the Ecole du Louvre and worked as an assistant to watercolorist Patrick Fouilhoux. Her painting skills developed in Italy where she attended La Porta Blu Art School in Rome. During 2010, she worked for some months in Amsterdam at Kanal 10 Guest studio and also in Walasiho, a remote village in Sulawesi, Indonesia.

In 2011 Christina was invited to Palestine to run art workshops and exhibit with Al-Mahatta Gallery during a residency period at Al Fara refugee camp. In 2011 Christina moved back to Italy and helped set up and run 33officinacreativa, an international artist in residency program in the medieval hill-top village of Toffia. Whilst living near Rome, Christina exhibited with private commercial galleries as well as showing work in public establishments including at Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome and the MACRO (Museum of Contemporary Art in Rome). In 2013 she moved to Canberra, Australia and was offered studio space at Australian National Capital Artists (ANCA.) She continued to exhibit in Europe with two solo shows in London and Rome, as well as a joint show with British Pop artist Peter Blake.

In Australia, she established herself with relative ease and had three solo shows in three different states. She moved to Maine in 2015 where she teaches and paints from her basement studio – when she is not chasing around after her two small children!

“My paintings address the familiar. Banal in subject matter, yet relevant. My work reflects the context and geographical location of where I reside at the time and, having moved and traveled a lot, my practice as an artist has been a means of grounding myself so as to feel part of and confident within each new setting.”

“I very much like old black and white photographs, and often work from them – usually sourced in library or museum collections. They provide a starting point for each work and before painting, I do multiple drawings from the photographs in order to ‘get inside’ the image and start my ‘conversation’ with it.”

“I am interested in the process and the transformation of the image from a documentary style photograph to a painting which recalls only elements of that original source. I want to present something clear and recognizable, yet without explaining or reasoning too much, in the hope that the viewer can also give meaning and emotional reflection. “

“The vibrant colors and shapes observed along the coast in Maine are spectacular and exciting and have provided the stimulus for this new body of work. “

To see more of her work visit her website

christinathwaites.net 

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