Biographical Details:

Christine Watson studied at Winchester School of Art (winning the Bateson Mason Drawing Prize in 1980) and the Slade School of Fine Art and was recipient of the Abbey Award in Painting with a residency at the British School at Rome in 1995. She teaches art classes in Muswell Hill and Barnet and was a part-time fine art lecturer at Barnet Southgate College. Christine regularly holds demonstrations and crits, and her structured classes formed the basis of her book ‘Art Therapy’, commissioned by Arcturus in 2017. Christine was elected as a member of the National Association of Acrylic Painters (NAPA) in 2017 and the Pastel Society in 2022. A member of the Printmakers Council and an honorary member of Islington Art Society, she has curated many group exhibitions around London.

Christine’s work in pastels, acrylic and print has been exhibited widely, not least at the Pastel Society Annual Exhibition on eight occasions (winning the Schmincke Prize in 2015 and 2021). Her work, catalogues of which were published in 1994, 2003 and 2008, is held in private collections in Europe, America, Australia and the Far East and public collections including the V&A in London, Peterborough City Art Gallery and the National Print Archive at Scarborough Art Gallery.

Artist's Statement:

Christine’s work employs colour to explore qualities of light and shade, space and place. Her subject matter is drawn from villages, towns and cities, many around the Mediterranean and North Africa, for the abstract qualities of spaces, light and shade, crumbling and ageing surfaces and vibrant colours. They seek to reveal the richness of steps and stairways, walls and roofs, windows and doors, streets and alleyways – the fabric of habitation – are revealed as they are, aged by wear and weather, without sentiment or nostalgia.

Working Method:

My pastel technique is to build up layer after layer until I achieve the desired colour and tone. The pigments mix on the paper and I darken as I progress (to avoid dust getting into the light tones) so there is a subtle base of colour shining through. I avoid blending by hand as I find it lessens the intensity of the colours, which is my absolute priority.

Marks are apparent if you look closely, but not so apparent that they distract. At art school I was taught (by Patrick Heron, John Hoyland, Gillian Ayres, Vanessa Jackson and others) that decorative mark-making was the territory of the textile department, and you shouldn't put in what's not necessary - subject, colour and form were the priorities and anything else would compromise the clarity of intent – and I guess that has stayed with me!

I discovered pastels when I inherited a huge Rowney box from my grandmother along with a substantial H-frame easel. Soft pastels were frowned upon at Winchester – like watercolours they were seen as the tools of the knitters and weavers – and we painters were the real artists who bathed in acrylics and made monumental paintings. After Winchester and the Slade, I felt free to explore new media and to shift from the prevailing abstraction to figurative, and around 1985 I started exhibiting my pastels.

I love worn surfaces and the spaces between walls and buildings. Greece has long provided the right subject matter and light, but more recently in Morocco I have explored pink and brown madder (Marrakech), raw sienna (Fez) and difficult blues (Chefchaoun). The camera is my sketchbook. Discreet and spontaneous, it helps me capture potential images, and from these I derive an underlying composition which I edit and adjust. I am selective and eliminate what’s not needed, avoiding superficial pattern and decoration.

Above all else I am passionate about colour. Working with pastels is itself a journey in painstakingly mixing and matching colours that best represent the image I am working from. The colours evolve from deliberately poor-quality laser prints, which allows me the freedom to create my own palette. I am never happier that grappling with different reds and browns or mixing greys with just the right hint of green or purple. Although I have many hundreds of pastels, I never seem to have the right colour, so I persevere obsessively until I am satisfied. Recent experiments in working on coloured paper has added a new dimension to the colour mixing and has helped me find new directions.

As a printmaker I find mezzotints work well in parallel with my pastels, even down to the similar rhythmic processes of applying pastel or burnishing out the light in a plate. The rhythmic process of scraping and burnishing has a similar feel to the way I apply my pastels, although with mezzotints you are moving from dark to light. I have also always worked in either oils or acrylics alongside my pastels, and I enjoy the challenge of reworking an image in a different medium. This feeds back subtly into my pastels, helping to make the next work better than the last.

Exhibitions:

Solo Exhibitions:

2017 Coffee Seeker, London N12
2014 Tintico Cafe, London N3
2014 Dexter & Co, Holborn, London WC1
2014 Butterfields Bank, London WC1
2012 Gallery K, Nicosia, Cyprus
2008 Moments in Time, Gallery K, Nicosia, Cyprus
2008 Moments in Time, Gallery K, London NW3
2003 Hydra-Kythera-Spetses-Syros, Gallery K, London NW3
2001 Island Architecture, Gallery K, London NW3
1997 Women of Rome, Gallery K, London NW3
1994 Pilgrims, Gallery K, London NW3
1991 Woodlands Art Gallery, Blackheath, London SE12
1986 The Original Gallery, Hornsey, London N8
1986 North Finchley Library, London N12
1986 Ring Cycle, The Hexagon, Reading
1985 Magic Circles, The Arts Centre, Christ’s Hospital School, Horsham
1984 Off Centre, Peterborough City Art Gallery

Selected Group Exhibitions:

2022 The Pastel Society Exhibition 2021, Mall Galleries, London SW1
2021 Ecologies of Change, Printmakers Council, Royal Over-Seas League, London SW1
2021 Society of Women Artists
2021 Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair
2021 Fusion, The Gallery at Holt, Norfolk
2021 National Acrylic Painters Association 2021, The Ox Market, Chichester
2021 The Northern line, Highgate Literary & Scientific Institution, London N6 (curator)
2021 The Pastel Society Exhibition 2021, Mall Galleries, London SW1 (Schmincke Prize)
2021 The Pastel Society Exhibition 2021 online
2020 Drawing from the Heart, The Gallery at Holt, Norfolk
2020 The Discerning Eye 2020 online
2020 The Society of Women Artists annual exhibition 2020 online
2020 Woolwich Contemporary Print fair 2020 online
2020 The Pastel Society Exhibition 2020, Mall Galleries, London, SW1
2020 Printmakers Council Archive Exhibition, Scarborough Art Gallery, North Yorks
2020 Time, Printmakers Council Exhibition, HLSI, Highgate, London N6
2019 IAS Autumn Exhibition, Stoke Newington Library, London N16
2019 Mini Prints, Printmakers Council Exhibition, Scarborough Art Gallery, North Yorks
2019 National Acrylic Painters Association Summer Exhibition, St Ives, Cornwall
2019 IAS Summer Exhibition, Stoke Newington Library, London N16
2019 EFO Artists Open House, London N2
2019 Land, Sea & Air, Printmakers Council Exhibition, The Ropewalk, Barton on Humber, Yorks
2019 Spring Showcase, Artsdepot, London N12
2019 Primavera, Barbican Library Gallery, The Barbican, London EC2
2019 Journeys, Printmakers Council Exhibition, Jack House Gallery, Portsmouth
2019 Journeys, Printmakers Council Exhibition, London Print Studio, London W8
2019 The Pastel Society Exhibition 2019, Mall Galleries, London SW1
2018 Printmakers Council Archive, Scarborough Art Gallery, North Yorkshire
2018 Incognito, Royal Over-Seas League Park Place, St James, London SW1
2018 IAS Autumn Exhibition, The Original Gallery, London N8
2018 50:50, Highgate Scientific & Literary Institution, London N8 (curator)
2018 Printmaking Exhibition, Hampstead School of Art, London NW3
2018 IAS Spring Exhibition, Stoke Newington Library, London N16
2018 Summer Salon, Islington Arts Factory, London N7
2018 EFO Artists Open House, London N2
2018 National Acrylic Painters Association Summer Exhibition, St Ives, Cornwall
2018 Memory, PMC exhibition, Royal Over-Seas League, London SW1
2018 The Pastel Society Exhibition 2018, Mall Galleries, London SW1
2018 The Impact of Buildings, Allies & Morrison, Southwark, London SE1
2018 Hampstead Arts Council Exhibition, Central St Giles, London WC2
2017 The Pastel Society, Mall Galleries, London SW1
2017 East Finchley Arts Festival, London N2
2017 Suraya Arts, Framers Gallery, London WC1
2017 Summer Salon, Islington Arts Factory, London N7
2017 Reflections, Ply Gallery, Hornsey Town Hall, London N8
2017 Printmaking Exhibition, Hampstead School of Art, London NW3
2017 Printmakers Council Archive, Scarborough Art Gallery, North Yorkshire
2017 Print City, Morley Gallery, London SE1
2017 Mini Print Exhibition, Morley Gallery, London SE1
2017 Making a Mark, Scarborough Art Gallery, North Yorkshire
2017 IAS Summer Exhibition, The Espacio Gallery, Shoreditch, London E2
2017 IAS Autumn Exhibition, The Original Gallery, London N8 (prize-winner)
2017 IAS Autumn Exhibition, Ply Gallery, Hornsey Town Hall, London N8
2017 Hackney Arts Hub, Stoke Newington Library, London N16
2017 First Edition, Linden Hall Studio, Deal, Kent
2017 EFO Artists Open House, London N2
2016 Hampstead School of Art, London NW3
2016 The World About Us, Stephens House, London N3
2016 The Pastel Society, Mall Galleries, London SW1
2016 Summer Salon, Islington Arts Factory, London, N7
2016 IAS Summer Exhibition, The Espacio Gallery, London EC2
2016 IAS Autumn Exhibition, The Original Gallery, London N8
2016 EFO Artists Open House, London N2
2016 East Finchley Arts Festival, London N2
2016 Breaking Boundaries, The Original Gallery, London N8
2016 Barnet Open, Artsdepot, London N12
2015 The Pastel Society, Mall Galleries, London, SW1 (Schmincke prize-winner)
2015 The London Group Part 2, The Cello Factory, London SE1
2015 Summer Salon, Islington Arts Factory, London N7
2015 Rhythm 'n' Blues, The Original Gallery, London N8
2015 Proof, Phoenix Cinema, London N2
2015 Paint Camera Action, Phoenix Cinema, London N2
2015 IAS Autumn Exhibition, The Original Gallery, London N8 (prize-winner)
2015 IAS 75th Anniversary Summer Exhibition, Lauderdale House, London N6
2015 EFO Artists Open House, London N2
2015 Barnet Open, Artsdepot, London N12
2014 The Pastel Society, Mall Galleries, London SW1
2014 Summer Salon, Islington Arts Factory, London N7
2014 Splashes, Wisps and Fragments, The Original Gallery, London N8
2014 Mini Affordable Art Fair, Keats Community Library, London NW3
2014 London Jewish Cultural Centre, London NW11
2014 IAS Spring Exhibition, Stoke Newington Library, London N16
2014 IAS Autumn Exhibition, The Original Gallery, London N8 (prize-winner)
2014 EFO Art Fair, London N2
2014 Barnet Open, Artsdepot, London N12
2013 London Jewish Cultural Centre, London NW11
2013 IAS Autumn Exhibition, The Original Gallery, London N8
2013 IAS Spring Exhibition, Stoke Newington Library, London N16
2013 EFO Art Fair, London N2
2013 Cycles, Highgate Literary & Scientific Institution, London N6 (curator)
2013 10x10, Phoenix Cinema, London N2
2012 London Jewish Cultural Centre, London NW3
2012 Take Six, Artisan Gallery, London NW9
2012 Phoenix Cinema, London N2
2012 EFO Open House, London N2
2011 EFO Open House, London N2
2011 Small is Beautiful, Artsdepot, London N12 (curator)
2011 Lights Up, Phoenix Cinema, London N2
2010 Phoenix Cinema, London N2
2010 EFO Open House, London N2
2010 Barnet Open, Artsdepot, London N12
2010 Lost Heritage, Gallery K, Nicosia, Cyprus
2010 Lost Heritage, Gallery K, Athens, Greece
2009 Lost Heritage, Gallery K, London NW3
2009 Koukan Gallery, London N10
2009 Phoenix Cinema, London N2
2009 Lost Heritage, Melina Mercouri Hall, Nicosia, Cyprus
2009 EFO Open House, London N2
2008 International Art Fair, Royal College of Art, London W1
2007 EFO Open House, London N2
2006 EFO Open House, London N2
2006 Angels, Gallery K, London NW3
2006 EFO Art Fair, London N2
2005 Berthold Gallery, London N3
2005 EFO Art Fair, London N2
2004 Maternity, Hotel St Raphael, Limassol, Cyprus
2004 Maternity, Galley K, Nicosia, Cyprus
2004 EFO Art Fair, London N2
2003 Green Line – Cyprus 1974-2001, War Museum, Athens, Greece
2003 East Finchley Arts Festival, London N2
2002 Maternity, The Errikos Dynan Hospital, Athens, Greece
2001 Green Line – Cyprus 1974-2001, Gallery K, Nicosia, Cyprus
1998 Maternity, Gallery K, London NW3
1995 Small is Beautiful, Flowers East, London E8
1994-02 Kiss exhibitions, Gallery K, London NW3
1994 The Pastel Society, Mall Galleries, London SW1
1994 Small is Beautiful, Flowers East, London E8
1992 Travellers in Greece, Gallery K, London NW3
1992 Merz Contemporary Art, London W8
1992 Geffrye Museum, London E2
1991 The Pastel Society, Mall Galleries, London SW1
1991 A View of the New, Royal Over-Seas League, London SW1
1989 Xantippe, The Orangery, Holland Park, London W2
1985 Three Years On, Swiss Cottage Library, London NW3
1982 Stowels Trophy, Royal Academy of Art, London W1