Today we’d like to introduce you to Cristine Weatherby.
Cristine, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
I began to take the pursuit of art seriously when I was about 40 years old. I enrolled in a drawing class as an attempt to balance the energy outflow of a full-time career as a real estate broker and raising a young child. I am lucky to have a very supportive husband. I painted late at night as it was the only time available to me. I have taken many workshops, been the workshop director for the San Diego Watercolor Society and currently run a company that organizes and directs watercolor workshops around the world. Now that I am retired from my first career, I consider myself a full-time artist and teacher and am still at my best painting late at night.
We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
I paint in watercolor, usually large paintings on heavy paper. I enjoy painting portraits since they take me a while and I have time to create a back story for my subjects. I often talk to them while I paint. I stop people in the street if I think they are interesting and engage them in conversation if I want to paint them. At the moment I am deep into a series of painting Indonesian puppets that are called Wayang Golek. I have posed them in human positions to tell human stories.
How can artists connect with other artists?
I think it is important to maintain connections with other artists through fellowships like guilds, societies, and galleries. However, I also find that these associations can make an artist feel even more isolated if the element of competition is emphasized. Submitting to competitions in my local watercolor society has been hard to reconcile with the friendships that I have developed. My solution to the isolation of painting has been to teach. I love the students and we have fun sharing as I make sure to subdue the evaluation demons.
Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
My work is displayed on my website crisweatherby.com and at the San Diego Watercolor Society. In June, I will have a three-month show at the Cardiff-by-the-Sea Library. I am occasionally in local galleries and in various watercolor shows as time allows.
Contact Info:
- Address: 1246 San Dieguito Drive
- Website: crisweatherby.com
- Phone: 7608150918
- Email: crisweatherby@gmail.com
- Instagram: cris-weatherby
- Facebook: Cris Weatherby
Image Credit:
All images are the original work of Cristine Weatherby
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