Florida Watercolor Artist News

Signature Member of the Florida Watercolor Society

Christine was thrilled to be inducted as a Signature Member of the Florida Watercolor Society.  The painting is entitled “Summer’s Ripening Breath”.  The show will be hanging until October 30, 2011 at the Manatee Art Center in Bradenton, Florida.

Best of Watercolor Award

Christine was honored to receive the Best of Watercolor Award at the Krasl Art on the Bluff Art Show in St. Joseph, Michigan on July 9, 2011.

Art Fest Fort Myers

Christine's artwork took 2nd place for two dimensional art.

WEB DESIGN Selected by Southern Watercolor Society

Christine's painting, WEB DESIGN, has been selected to be exhibited in the 34th Annual Southern Watercolor Society Exhibition in Greenville, North Carolina. Christine's entry was among 429 paintings submitted from artists throughout the 19 SW states. Eric Wiegardt, juror, has selected 90 paintings for the 34th Annual Exhibition.

Christine Reichow to be Visiting Artist at the Harbor View Gallery for the Month of January.

 
Please join her at the opening reception on Tuesday, January 4th from 6 – 8 PM.
 
Harbor View Gallery
5789 Cape Harbour Drive, Suite  104
Cape Coral, FL
(239) 540-5789

The prestigious American Watercolor Society has granted Signature Membership to watercolor artist Christine Reichow.

She is to be inducted into the AWS in New York City at the 143rd Annual International Exhibition on April 30, 2010 at the Salmagundi Club. Her painting, “Pelican Flower” has also been awarded the Didi Deglin Award and was selected for the Annual Traveling Exhibition which will visit museums and galleries across the country in the year ahead.

This level of membership is granted only to highly select artists and is considered the most prestigious accomplishment for any watercolor artist. Thousands of artists submit paintings to the annual American Watercolor Society competition. Those whose paintings are accepted in three of these competitions are given Signature Member status. And because only 100 are accepted each time, this status is difficult to achieve and highly competitive.

Christine’s first painting to be accepted was “Life’s Balance” in 2007, followed by “Sleeping Beauty” in 2009.

Says Christine, “Becoming an AWS Signature Member is a great honor and a dream come true. I’m so pleased that my work is so highly regarded and I’m proud to have achieved this level of recognition in a medium with which I so love to work!”

Christine is also a Signature Member of the National Watercolor Society. She is included in the hardcover book Splash 10, featured in The Artist’s Magazine, Watercolor Magic and American Artist Magazine.

Christine grew up in rural Michigan where her love of art and nature was nurtured by her parents. She became a fiber designer and eventually opened her own boutique featuring her and other artists’ work. She moved to Napa Valley, California where she explored other art mediums and fell in love with watercolor. Now a Floridian, Christine is known for her flawless wash backgrounds which she slowly builds, layer by layer, on 300 lb. paper. She enjoys painting unusual botanicals with the hope of encouraging her audience to appreciate the beauty of nature.

She says, “I strive to stir emotion. My desire is for the viewer to experience the serenity of the landscape, the splendor of a bird, the richness of a flower. The process of painting puts me in an altered state of consciousness that is meditative but exciting, mysterious as well as satisfying and always pleasurable beyond imagination.”

For more information about the Annual Traveling Exhibition please visit their website.

Grandeur Magazine Features Christine's Watercolor Painting "Kaleidoscope"!

Grand View

Christine Reichow is in her natural element in Southwest Florida, capturing flora, fauna and landscapes in bright, detailed watercolors. Featured at many local festivals, the Estero artist exhibits throughout Florida and in her native Midwest. She was also included in this year’s prestigious American Watercolor Society exhibition in New York City. You’ll find her work at the Pine Island gallery Wild Child and at Punta Gorda’s Vicky Glynn Gallery, and her prints are available at the gift shop at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary in north Naples. Currently working on a series of orchid paintings, she says she never has a shortage of subjects. “I love nature,” Reichow says. “And what a wonderful place to love nature this is.”

Christine was featured in the Homescapes section of Florida Weekly under Eye for Design:

For a petite woman, Southwest Florida watercolor artist Christine Reichow certainly creates a large volume of work.

She and husband Dick have filled their home with all the furnishings of a thriving operation. Her framed watercolors decorate the walls. On a coffee table rests the 2008 hardcover compilation of watercolorists' works, "Splash #10: Passionate Brushstrokes," which includes a profile of Mrs. Reichow and her "Pelican Flower" piece.

A Signature Member of the National Watercolor Society, Mrs. Reichow paints in a spacious upstairs studio whose large windows offer a gorgeous view of the outdoors that so inspire her. Supplies, spiralbound books of painting notes spanning decades, a display of samples frames and a collection of awards fill the room.

A downstairs room is stocked with cutting boards, a canvas drying rack, mat and frame varieties and framed art pieces. Another room has a computer and 24- and 44-inch printers where Dick completes the giclee reproductions by scanning, enlarging and stitching images. "Sometimes I come in here and watch him," says Mrs. Reichow, 60. "It's just fascinating to see him as he works to line up the pieces to get them together. Eighty to 90 percent of the people want reproductions."

As much as Mrs. Reichow is a master at her craft, Mr. Reichow, 70, is an expert hand in the production. He maintains a list of painting titles and reproductions in each installment of 250 editions per painting. He records dimensions and dates of paintings and knows which clients have the most originals -- 15 of mostly birds and botanicals for a Naples customer. Mrs. Reichow's presence in art shows and galleries and awards received, he knows that too.

The two deliver quality, precision. They radiate pride in the product. "It's turned out to be a much bigger operation than I ever thought it would be," says Mrs. Reichow, every bit the picture of energy and passion. "It's because my husband has done so much to help. It's something I could not do in this volume without him."

Before starting to paint full time in 1998, Mrs. Reichow painted as a textile designer, creating wearable art. She then opened and operated a boutique 10 years in Michigan, where she sold the one-of-a-kind clothing.

Since moving to Southwest Florida in 2000, she has been painting plenty. Birds, botanicals and landscapes are subjects of choice. "I had a father who was a naturalist," she says. "He would take my brother and I for walks and point out the names of the flowers. All year round he was always pointing things out."

"For me, nature is the subject that I love," she says. "Nature is near and dear to my heart."

Mrs. Reichow photographs subjects, then sketches images in pencil on the watercolor surface. To create details, she uses masking to protect the paper from being stained by watercolor when first painting the backgrounds.

Meticulous strokes and vibrant hues prevail in her works, but the seamless background, particularly of rich olive green, is her signature. "I think people like it because it has a peaceful feeling to it," she says.

Mrs. Reichow says it took a long time to perfect the washed background. "I keep notes about how I create the background, how I created this color in the background, if I discovered anything, a little breakthrough," she says. "I'm just always trying to find a better way, more effective and more thought-out, so it troubleshoots problems in the future."

She says she relishes the variety of technique in painting subjects. For instance, she pours paint when creating landscapes. She has a bathtub to collect the runoff after she's poured cupfuls of color to produce the background. She may pour a second time before using a brush to insert details. "After it's poured, I'll go back in and darker certain areas and then give shapes," she says.

Among the venues displaying her work are Wild Child Art Gallery on Pine Island, Vicky Glynn Gallery and Frame in Punta Gorda and Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary in Naples, where she has an exhibit this month and December. Other paintings are in private and corporate collections.

Mrs. Reichow says they average about 16 art shows a year. "I feel it's valuable to do competition and try to take my work to the next level because then for anybody who purchases something, it can make it more valuable if I can keep winning and accomplishing more with my art," she says. "So I do both. I sell, but I also compete."

Her online site, www.christinereichow. com, features a gallery of 218 paintings done since 2001, Mr. Reichow says.

Transparent Watercolor Society 32 National Exhibition

"Let's Twist Again" was accepted into this year's competition.

The exhibition will run from May 16 through July 28, 2008 at the Bloomington Art Center in Bloomington, Minnesota.

Cape Coral Art Festival Poster 2008

Exciting News!

"The Lovers" has been selected for the Cape Coral Art Festival Poster. The show is January 12 and 13, 2008 in downtown Cape Coral on Cape Coral Parkway.