Christine Holton

Christine Holton is a teaching artist based in Durham, NC. Currently, she is an art instructor at Artpost at Happymess, offering private or group art lessons and workshops and professional consultation for artists and teachers. She has clients around the US and internationally.
Her paintings and drawings explore the symbology, purpose, and functions of living things. They are portraits meant to celebrate and venerate living systems for their beauty, unique traits, characteristics, ancient designs, and meaning. She is interested in branch-like forms, patterns, and symmetry found in the human anatomy, symbols of nature such as the tree, and animals. She is fascinated by and in awe of these living systems, their functions and their energies, her own human organs included.

She celebrates her subjects using bright colors to bring attention to them and to add fantasy. Lively, painterly brushstrokes exaggerate their movement and vitality, while up-close views, intentional compositions, and abstracted or fantasy-like environments help viewers find enchantment and draw their attention to the beauty of the living object itself.

She does pet portrait commissions and art for personal spaces and gifts, enjoying creating work that fills a need and brings pleasure. She is inspired by the living world outdoors; hiking, gardening, and moving her body in out in nature. She loves caring for and observing animals, especially dogs, and is an enthusiastic supporter of the Animal Protection Society of Durham, supporting them through the sales of some of her work.