Born in Southsea, Hants, Christine Watson studied at Winchester School of Art and the Slade School of Fine Art. She was recipient of the EA Abbey Award in Painting with a residency at the British School at Rome in 1995. Her work is held in private collections in Europe, America, Australia and the Far East and in public collections including the V&A in London, Peterborough City Art Gallery, and the National Print Archive at Scarborough Art Gallery. She was a lecturer at Barnet Southgate College and now teaches private classes in Muswell Hill and Barnet. She is author of ‘Art Therapy’, published by Arcturus in 2017.

Since her residency at the British School at Rome, Christine’s work has investigated the cities, towns and villages of the Mediterranean region, from Italy to Greece and Morocco. Here the built environment is characterised not so much by individual buildings as by walls, doorways and windows, and specifically the spaces between them in the form of passages and alleyways. These surfaces merge in a sophisticated urban continuum, bearing the marks and traces of centuries of habitation.

Christine works in a variety of media, from oils and acrylics to print, but her core enthusiasm is for working with pastels and mezzotint, which best convey the atmosphere of her subject matter. Christine’s camera is her sketchbook, with photographs representing the starting point for each work, and the composition is gradually pared back to reveal its essential qualities – what is missing is as significant as what remains. The work is intended to provoke the imagination: What is around the corner? What is behind the door? And who has just walked past?

Typically, each drawing takes several weeks of work, with the image gradually coaxed into being through an intense and obsessive exploration of colour and/or tone – -the end result is always uncertain. A well measured and accurate drawing is the starting point of both her pastels and prints. Her students are constantly reminded that a good drawing is essential into creating a good painting in any medium.