Local artist Christine Reichow keeps good company. Last May, she was chosen by the Graffiti Night Steering Committee as one of the 2011 Arts for ACT featured artists, and during festival season, you'll find her among the elite artists who are juried into shows like this weekend's Naples Invitational Art Fest in Fleischmann Park down in Naples and next weekend's ArtFest Fort Myers.
Christine's medium is watercolor, her genre realism and motifs of choice, floral and wildlife. So much for categorizations. What's important is that she combines these tools to convey an intimate and deeply-felt love for the delicacy and serenity of the natural world that surrounds her. There is a Zen-like quality to her depictions. They encourage the viewer to become centered, to re-establish a primordial connection to the universe and its cosmic rules of order.
Reichow traces her respect for nature to her father. He taught her from an early age to quietly observe nesting birds and to listen to the way they communicate with each other through melodic warbling. Her lexicon growing up became the names of the trees, plants and flowers that she and her dad encountered as they roamed the Michigan countryside.
Mom was a major influence as well. A lifelong artist, Christine's mother inspired her to study art and design. She majored in textiles and clothing at Michigan State, where she began creating hand-dyed and hand-woven pieces using natural fabrics. Following graduation, she began painting on silk to make wearable art that was ultimately displayed in prestigious galleries from Detroit to New York. But it wasn't until she moved to Florida that she took up painting in watercolors. It's a medium that uniquely enables her to create leaves, petals and anthers that are as luminous as they are transparent.
A member of the American Watercolor Society, Florida Watercolor Society, Watercolor West, and Transparent Watercolor Society, and a signature member of the National Watercolor Society, Reichow's work ethic is reflected by her 2012 exhibition schedule. She opened the year at the Downtown Naples New Year's Art Festival, and after she completes this weekend's Naples Invitational, she will show at ArtFest Fort Myers (February 3, 4 & 5), Coconut Point Art Festival (February 11 & 12), Naples National Art Festival (February 25 & 26) and Mercato Fine Art Festival (March 3 & 4).
And who were Arts for ACT's other 2011 featured artists? None other than 2011 Visual Artist of the Year Stephen Gray-Blancett, daas Gallery's David Acevedo, pop artist Scott Guelcher, Cheryl Fausel, News-Press cartoonist Doug MacGregor, Jim Dickerson, Jeffrey Scott Lewis, Barbara Chloe Murdoch, Ellen Sheppard, Todd Andrew Babb and Cathy Logan.
Rarified company indeed.
For more information, please visit www.christinereichow.com or telephone the artist at 239-433-3817.
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