Christina Keating

The uniqueness of Christina Keating's paintings lies just as much in what she eliminates as what she includes. Her compositions often reveal a portion of a room, a view of water through a section of window, a tropical paradise, or boats traveling and resting. This style imbues the work with an eloquent mystery and transcends the images from ordinary and predictable to romantic adventures. Because Keating does not incorporate figures in her scenarios, the viewer is drawn in to use their imagination and complete the picture. Christina’s collectors enjoy her lyrical images, which offer a positive and carefree side of life.

Christina studied at the Art Student’s League in New York, Parsons School of Design, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

Artist Statement

Through images that resonate with a breezy and inviting nature, Keating strives to create scenes that bring a sense of warmth, beauty and optimism. Her paintings are of places that she has visited ranging from scenic views in foreign lands to living rooms of friends and family. During her travels she fills notebooks with pencil sketches and takes photographs to remind her of the details of places she has been. Open windows and doors so often featured in her work, are thresholds, but not boundaries, inviting you to come with her in the act of continual discovery of what is just beyond the curtain, outside the window or around the corner. While suggesting a world full of possibilities, her goal to express tender feelings about home and nature explains her tendency to return again and again to subjects such as lush landscapes or inviting interiors. Keating's personal vision of earthly happiness gives her work philosophical depth and tremendous appeal. She makes no attempt to provide provocative social or political commentary with her paintings. Instead, she is guided to create a personal image that is both aesthetically pleasing and stimulating, thus asking the viewer to reconsider the idealistic tradition in art. Her images combined with her consideration of composition and color lead the viewer to see optimism in everyday surroundings. One has sense of being at ease and a feeling of being at home in this world.

“As an artist for the past 35 years and now as a gallery owner, I have had the privilege and the pleasure of admiring a great deal of contemporary art. Many artists paint “in the style” of artists who preceded them and it’s a difficult achievement to strive for a particular style - while infusing the work with your own indelible spirit. Christina Keating has accomplished an unusual goal - she is the finest contemporary artist I have seen whose paintings echo the style and beauty of Matisse and Dufy, and at the same time remain exclusively “Christina”. Her vibrant color and brushwork, her strong sense of composition, and her unwavering commitment to impart to the viewer a sense of who she is and the passion she feels for her art make her, in my opinion, one of our most beloved up and coming artists. What do I feel when I look at her work? I feel pure joy. It’s that simple – and that’s what makes it so incredibly wonderful.”

Barbara Hughes, Owner, Hughes Gallery, Boca Grande, Florida

Christina's work was recently featured in Florida Design Magazine through Hughes Gallery.