Artist and Art Center student, Christine Mitchell, debuts a focused range of oil paintings in her first solo exhibition. With a selection of self-portraits, still-life paintings, and abstract compositions, the exhibition highlights Mitchell’s gradual transition between working with realistic representation to an increased passion for painting’s formal qualities.
Mitchell’s interest in color, tone, shape, form and especially light is evident in all of her paintings. “A triangle of white light sitting on a patch of pink skin can exhilarate me,” says the artist for whom the issue of light came as a priority while taking classes at the Art Center. “Light primarily builds form, it highlights the meaning in a narrative, but how does it work in abstraction? Is there space for light in abstraction and if so how is it different from figurative painting?” These are the questions that the artist tries to explore through her work. The various paintings on view offer the public a chance to follow the artist’s growing interest in issues of light and abstraction offering an example of a dynamically changing artistic process.
