Gallery of Wisconsin Art - Christine Buth-Furness
Ric Hartman, Director
414-630-3600
Cedarburg, Wisconsin, January 26 through May 14, 2023
Closing reception May 6, 2023.
Scottsdale, AZ, September 2022
Sante Fe, NM, September 2022
May 6 to July 29, 2022
I paint images that suggest a presence in an environment or an
absence of one and evoke an emotional response. Art making is an
activity that documents my creative and critical thinking and
takes the form of visual poetry. The works are abstracted
portraits of objects found in nature, places experienced, spaces
navigated and those imagined. Layers of water-based pigment build
the color intensity; define the form and allow light as a subject
to give meaning. Each deep, rich hue is created through a series
of washes, one transparent layer over another building in
intensity until the maximum color saturation is reached.
I usually work in series, some of which are titled: “Redwoods and
water loops”, “Empty spaces,” “Trees and light” and “Sky in a
box”. The new series is inspired by my years in California and my
travels and is titled “Building a Forest One Tree at a Time.”
The camera is with me most days and is used as another tool for
observing nature, but I never work directly from a photograph when
I paint. In addition, I draw from a model every week, and this
allows me to practice, develop and maintain a keen sense of
observation and to successfully build values in a composition.
Photographing and drawing the world around me are critical parts
of my art making process.
Even though watercolor is my primary medium, I was formally
trained in fine art printmaking, and it took several years to
learn to paint like a painter, not like a printmaker. In 2015 I
had a large solo exhibition, which included drawings, prints and
paintings from the last three decades. This awakened a desire to
again allow the white of the paper to become a powerful positive
shape in the paintings, reexamining the dialog between positive
and negative shapes.
Watercolor USA Honor Society
Board Member and Newsletter Editor
Milwaukee Artist Resource Network
Wisconsin Visual Artists
February 2016 Issue
Past board member and lifetime member