At The Artist’s Easel With Christie Best-Pearson

If you have seen Best-Pearson’s work, you can’t help but be impressed by the obvious love that goes into each piece. In her distinct and expressive style, whether of a still life or a landscape, her paintings exude light and detail confirming hours of patience and talent. Though most of her work is done in transparent watercolour, using multiple glazes, she also works in pencil.

Drawn to the arts as a child through both music and drawing, Christie learned early that she could use these media to express herself, something that didn’t come easily for her. As she grew older and entered high school, Christie knew she wanted to be an artist.

Most of Christie’s art education is self-taught, but she has attended workshops of other artists and her influences have been Canadian artists Brigitte Schreyer and A.J. Casson of the Group of Seven. Christie also “learns as she goes,” picking up information through books and from other artists.

While married and raising children, Christie managed to find the time to paint out of necessity. More than just a hobby to her, it was a huge part of who she was as a person. When asked how she found the time, she said, “You have to CHOOSE. Do you watch sit down and watch a movie or do you draw? Do you go out with the girls for coffee or paint? And sometimes you just have to realize that a little bit of dust in your house is okay sometimes. I squeezed drawing in whenever I could.”

Throughout the years, Christie has been on the executive boards of the Elliot Lake Arts Club, the Northern Ontario Artists Association, the Manitoulin Fine Arts Association and the Walden Art Club.

Christie has exhibited in Northern Ontario, and has had several solo exhibitions on the Manitoulin, North Shore and Sudbury area. She does commissions of people working from both life and her own photographs as reference material for her work.

“What I would like to be able to do eventually is to stop work and just paint and work in my garden, have an open studio / gallery where people can come and go while I am working away. Although I have sold quite a few paintings and completed many commissions, selling my work has always been secondary to actually the joy of creating it. I just want to paint for the joy of it. So I guess I'll have to keep working at my "real job" so I can continue to do that. I also plan on teaching art again when I retire, whenever that happens. I do teach occasionally now - but because I work full time, that is limited at this point.”
by Victoria Tapper