Christine Thery

My subject matter is what is around me, my interest is in rural life so I live in a place that inspires me. That place is Heir Island; the island and the nearby mainland still has a traditional but dwindling rural economy.

 I fill sketch books with ideas for paintings. In those books I use charcoal and pastels for quick sketches. Sometimes I paint outside but mostly pictures are painted in the studio from material I have collected outside, as I am not generally interested in straight landscapes, but more about living in those landscapes. I take photographs but prefer to use drawings and quick sketches for my finished paintings as exact details of the landscape and the colours are not necessarily things I want to reproduce exactly. Often photographs are just a reminder of where I must return to paint or plan a painting in my sketch book. Of course best plans always go awry and like most painters I never paint the painting I really want to… so the never ending search keeps you going.