Encounter Painting

I was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, into a family of artists. My parents and brother moved to Canada when I was six and after a few years in Vancouver, Kamloops and Seattle my mother and I settled in Southern California where I attended high school and college. I received my BA in Drawing and Painting (1965) and my MA in Illustration (1972) from California State University Long Beach. Watercolor and/or silk painting (batik) are my favorite mediums. My paternal grandfather, Rasmus Christiansen (the spelling is correct, my father changed the i to a j) was a well known painter and illustrator in Denmark whose biography was recently published in a book, Rasmus Christiansen: Tegner go Maler (1863 -1940), En sommergest i Hjarbæk by Ole Utoft. Growing up I was surrounded by his paintings, drawings and illustrations. I was particularly impressed by an ink drawing of an oak tree, which I spent many hours copying, admiring his attention to detail and trying to learn his ink techniques. My father, Jørgen, was trained as a silversmith. Sadly, he lost an eye from injuries he sustained when the airplane he was flying solo to qualify as a pilot plunged into Hjarbæk Fjord, ending his silversmithing days and his dream of becoming a pilot. I was quite fascinated by his glass eye. ​ The imagery I select is inspired by my surroundings, whether landscape, garden, or my cats. It's about preserving a perfect moment in time to be enjoyed at leisure. I can't imagine living without art. My favorite media for creating my paintings are watercolor and batik. I trust watercolor is a familiar medium, but will explain batik, since it is not as familiar. The art of batik, a process for using multiple layers of melted wax for creating images on fabric can be traced back to prehistoric times. Wax or other types of resists are applied to cloth to repel dye, the unwaxed areas absorbing dyes by immersion in dye baths. The technique has been practiced through time and throughout the world, each country developing unique tools and techniques. In the process I use to create my batiks the image develops gradually by alternating the wax and dye process until it is complete and the whole fabric is covered with wax which is removed by ironing fabric between sheets of tissue or newspaper (or it can be dry cleaned) and dyes are set by steaming. I paint or spray concentrated dyes onto stretched silk using techniques similar to my watercolors.