AN INTERVIEW WITH CHRISTINE CODE

Written by Kim Weeks from her interview with Christine Code

12/02/24


Necessity is the mother of invention and, according to tonal landscape artist Christine Code, it is also the genesis of creativity. Born and raised in rural Canada, Christine says her family used the resources they had available and eked out their modest living by making the tools and other items they needed. This became something of a theme for Christine’s burgeoning interest in, and later on, her career in art. 

 

“I came from a long line of family members that made things for themselves, because we never had a lot of money. So if my dad needed a certain tool or something, he would make it himself,” she said. “[My family were] just really inventive and resourceful people. So it's not surprising that I became a maker or a creator of something.”

 

It also seems likely that Christine was inspired by the vast prairie landscape surrounding her home in Saskatchewan, having spent many happy hours reveling in the outdoors. 

 

“My dad was a farmer, a building mover, and mechanic, so sort of a jack of all trades. And I lived in a small rural village in Saskatchewan, Canada. I remember spending a lot of time outdoors in the field with my dad. I loved joining him in the field and riding the tractor. I loved playing in the rain and the mud. In the winter, I'd go ice skating and curling. There wasn't a lot to do, but we usually filled our time outdoors,” she said.

 

  Christine says that in her early years she did not draw or paint more than any other child her age, but there was a moment in her teen years where her passion for art was ignited. “I had an amazing high school art teacher, and I remember this key moment where I was painting a portrait, and I was struggling with the nose. She must have been watching me and getting frustrated, because she suddenly came up behind me and snatched the brush out of my hand and, with one elegant brushstroke, accomplished what I had been trying to achieve all along,” Christine said. “And that really fascinated me. It was just like magic. She was able to simplify something so complex, like the human nose, in just one brushstroke. And I think I was bit by the painting bug in that moment.”

 

This art teacher continued to encourage her creativity and allowed Christine to work in the art room over the noon hour each day. But when she wanted to expand her skills and lacked the materials, Christine found that her family’s resourcefulness gave her that opportunity.

 

“I remember knowing that real artists paint on canvas, and all we had in the art room was paper. So, my dad and I went out to the farm, and we cut a piece of old filthy combine canvas off the combine … and we wrapped it around the board, and I painted on that,” she said.

 

From that day forward, Christine painted every day, fueled by positive feedback she received, coupled with her unshakeable desire to improve. 

 

“People compliment you, and all of those compliments along the way sort of reinforce who you are and become part of your identity, so it just kind of builds up from there.” She said. “I would never say that I was the best artist in her art class. I think a lot of my classmates would be surprised that I'm an artist today, but I had the drive to get good at it.”

 

A few years after she left high school, Christine began to pursue an education in psychology and eventually graduated with a degree. However, during that time she found that she could supplement her income by selling her paintings. And from there she never looked back.

 

“I had two young kids at home, and I was on student loans, and I sort of needed a way to generate a little bit of extra household income. Having that maker mentality in me from my upbringing and my dad, I thought, ‘Well, I could paint. I could paint and sell the paintings.’ So that's what I did,” she said. “I just started painting again, and people were buying them. Of course, it's really intoxicating when someone opens their wallet and spends their hard-earned money on something that you made. So, that really started it back up for me.”

 

During those years, Christine explored a wide variety of styles, subjects and locations, and eventually, she found that she was most confident painting what she knew from her childhood. 

 

“I loved every genre and every subject, and I just wanted to do it all. And then it became apparent that I was struggling with some things, whereas in landscape [paintings], I had the least struggle. It came more naturally to me,” she said. “The old advice is to paint what you know, and I think the landscape and the sky was just something that I've always known better than other subjects, so I was more comfortable painting it.”

 

Like many working artists, Christine sometimes found herself struggling not just creatively, but also financially. Even so, she never questioned her decision to be a full-time artist.

 

“There were times that I wasn't bringing in much money at all, but I persisted. I mean, if anything else, I'm stubborn. Once I have my mindset, I'm going to go for it. So, I just pushed on,” she said. “I remember the first month that I was able to afford the household groceries for that month. And at the time, that just felt like a huge accomplishment. And so success changes as you go, right? Those little milestones change, and your goals change as you go."

As her career moved forward, Christine discovered her style, creating evocative landscapes and cloudscapes through the use of color and value. She gained recognition and accolades through galleries, competitions, and on social media. In fact, she said, Montana Trails Gallery friend and supporter, Kevin Wysocki, discovered Christine on Instagram and reached out to her about representation. “[Kevin] said he just loves tonal work, [and] he stumbled across my work. And he had sent me an email saying that he wanted to talk about me showing at Montana Trails. So, I jumped on it. What a beautiful gallery,” Christine said.

 

MTG manager Sydney Weeks said they are thrilled to represent Christine’s work, because her tonal images have a distinct look and feel from some other landscapes. 

 

“Christine’s paintings manage to be both soft and strong. They are ethereal and evoke a mood that is unique to her work,” Sydney said. “We are so happy to be among the few galleries in the US to show her paintings.”

 

While Christine’s landscape paintings do not typically represent any specific place or geographical area, they do reflect an amalgam of her memories and experience.

 

“I'm combining several things into the painting, so it becomes a sort of whole new world. And I think that some of it has sort of a sense of mystery to it,” she said. “I particularly enjoy evoking the sense of human insignificance, like the world is just way larger than us, and the universe is way bigger than us. And so I think that sort of speaks to some of the blurriness and the mystery, and then just the vastness of the sky.”

 

Christine said she loves to paint en plein air throughout the year, including and especially during the cold and snowy winter months in Saskatchewan. Not only is the scenery spectacular at that time of year, but she has learned a trick to make it truly enjoyable.

 

“I will go out in the winter and crank the heat [in my car], and I have this little pochade box that, if I pull out the pallet drawer … the pochade fits really perfectly onto my steering wheel. … I clip my brush holder onto the steering wheel, and I just sit there and paint. It's the most peaceful. I love it. I love it. I love painting winter in the car,” she said.

 

In addition to painting each day, Christine has done several illustrative videos on Art School Live, which appear on YouTube and Instagram. While she does not have much experience as an instructor, she enjoys it and finds that it helps with her own thought process while painting. “I think that talking about painting while you're doing it really gets you thinking about why,” she said. “So when you are doing a demo like that, you have to verbally communicate what you're doing, and ... it cements in your mind [the reasons] why you're making those choices. I don't know, I think it can only improve your work to teach.”

 

She also finds, though, that happy accidents are critical part of her creative process and she welcomes them through the use of a variety of tools and techniques.

 

“I just love when a flick of the brush or a twist of the palette knife can create an interesting cloud shape almost accidentally, and then it becomes part of the painting, because you just love that shape so much,” she said. “I love using a variety of tools that will give me those interesting marks and longer bristled brushes that are difficult to control, so you get all of those surprising brushstrokes and surprise accidents that make their way into the painting.”

 

One thing Christine says she would tell her students and aspiring painters, including her younger self, is that they should get out of the studio and paint outside.

 

“I was really missing that element in my work for the first 16 years. I was just strictly a studio painter. And the moment I stepped outdoors and started to go plein air on a regular basis, my studio work improved a thousand percent,” she said. “When you're outside, you are seeing the true color and value of the outdoors. When you take a picture, the camera darkens the shadows and overexposes the light, and you're missing a lot of color information.”

 

Most of Christine’s work is landscape or cloudscape, but she also paints birds and animals, all of which she can see within a few miles of her home, or even just out on her back porch. 

 

“I can just sit out on my deck and paint the clouds. And then other times, I drive outside of town and we have the farmland and the prairie grasses. And then I'm just a 10-minute drive from the river, so if I go down there, I get the nice blues of the distant river hills and, of course, the hills with the sage brush and all of the native shrubs and grasses. So, really, I don't have to go far to find some really beautiful scenes.”

 

Regardless of what she paints or where she paints, Christine creates a sense of wonder and mystique in even the most common scenes and subjects.

 

“The thing I love about plein air is that it is romanticizing the ordinary. You can drive by a tree a hundred times, and it's just a tree. But the moment you pull over and set up your easel and study it and paint it, and you're spending a few hours with this tree, you get to know it on a deeper level. And then the next time you drive by that tree, it's like seeing an old friend. It's like, ‘I already know you. I know you on a deeper level than, say, someone else knows you,’” she said.

 

From a nondescript tree to an extraordinary cloudscape, Christine’s paintings invite viewers into her deeper perspective of the scenes and encourage them to wonder, marvel, and reimagine their own memories and emotions through her canvas. 

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