Floral impressionism with an abstract twist
Neither fully impressionistic nor abstract, Christina’s style can be best described as an aesthetics of colour balance paired with strong textural contrast — a sort of watershed between the two. Painting instinctively with bold and confident brush strokes, she manages to capture ephemeral magic of the flowers while also attempting to tell a story with each of her paintings.
CHRISTINA MEYER-KING:
‘‘I appreciate the rich symbolism of flowers, where depending on the context, a single flower can represent reproduction and decay, promiscuity or purity, hardship or love, or simply a beautiful pile of petals. I often follow my own interpretation, as it gives me the freedom to create my own aesthetics and capture real emotions on my canvases.’’
Inspiration
A Russian-born British artist, Christina started drawing at a very early age, with one of her first vivid memories being of flowers in her grandmother’s garden. Fascinated by the abundance of colours, scents, and shapes, she used to spend long hours there.
Her artistic journey continued in Art School, where she spent 5 years honing her technique and eventually received a Fine Art diploma in painting. She still credits her mentors from that period as one of the major creative inspirations that eventually helped her find her own voice. Heavily influenced by the tradition of Russian 19th-century art, when it comes to her floral artworks, she turns to Konstantin Korovin for inspiration. Korovin, a leading Russian Impressionist painter, gained fame as a superb colourist with a great legacy of expressive blooms.
Art practice
‘‘The artist must train not only his eye but also his soul’’.
— Wassily Kandinsky
Visual and verbal context are very important. Christina always compiles a vast collection of symbols, ideas, and images, as well as gouache sketches, which serve as references and later become the core of the collection. Her practice stems from an obvious fascination with flowers, but even more so from documenting her own journey through the prism of metaphorical language — unfolding one petal (or emotion) at a time.
She says, ‘‘According to Kandinsky the artist must train not only his eye but also his soul. In that that respect, my paintings can truly be considered as meditative portraits of my inner self.’’
Style
Christina's artistic style defies categorisation, straddling the line between impressionism and abstraction. Instead her work serves as a bridge between these two, showcasing a harmonious blend of bold brushstrokes and intricate details. Through her intuitive painting process, she captures the fleeting beauty of flowers while infusing each piece with emotional narrative too. Her vibrant yet delicate palette gives rise to whimsical patterns of branches, leaves, and buds that dance across her canvases, exuding a sense of vitality and charm.
Process
A fusion of techniques is another distinctive trait in Christina’s work, resulting in highly individual and utterly decorative pieces. Her process, in addition to intensive sketching, includes a necessary imprimatura layer, as well as building multiple layers of gesso and museum-grade oil colour to form intuitive, organic compositions.
Christina’s conviction with her materials is a result of many years of creative evolution. She often begins her work in acrylics to serve as the base for composition and to ensure the canvas's maximum longevity. Christina works in solitude in her studio in Bristol.
