Star Print Stationers and Artist’s Materials

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ARTIST OF THE WEEK – CRISTINA SCHEK ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

We were first introduced to Cristina by ‘Fern Boy’ ‘who’ had been selected by the London Borough of Richmond Upon Thames Council to grace the front cover of the 2019 Richmond Art House Open Studios Festival catalogue. Little did we know that ‘Fern Boy’ had been awarded First Prize at The 2018 Salon des Refusés of artworks refused by the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, as most voted artwork out of over 170 UK and international creators across a range of art forms.
Her Royal Academy of Arts journey continues this year. She’s got through to the final round of judging for the #RASummerExhibition2020 with a work entitled ‘Pretty Fly for a Fungi in the Woods’. Justifiably so.
Cristina is a creative in the truest sense of the word. She crosses boundaries effortlessly to amalgamate worlds within worlds in order to create sensational delights that can only be described as moreish on the visual palette.
The (late) landscape photographer Ansel Adams once said that ” you don’t take a photograph, you make it.’ That is exactly what this wonderfully charismatic and somewhat nomadic part Photographer, part Digital Artist, part Storyteller, does.
She seamlessly pieces together compositions of things that are in front of them, but they don’t see, and breathes new life through reinvention by presenting them through the eyes of a writer with flair, whilst capturing the spirit of an old master wearing a smock of new romanticism and carrying a brush of Gothic humour. The world and her imagination being the colour.
In her own words, she says “I am the photosensitive kind. I think in pictures; my imagination is always in focus. I create worlds that are mythical places. They exist. Each in their own magical way. Photography is my key to the secret garden, my way down the rabbit hole, my looking glass.
Far removed from traditional or documentary photography, the camera is merely a tool for me. I enjoy the freedom of layering and manipulating my photographs into creative montages, trusting my instinct for matching the raw material captured in real life, with the imaginings of my subconscious.
Often whimsical and a touch romantic, my photographs are given subtle alterations in a digital process that often takes months, resulting in carefully constructed compositions, which betray the influence of the great Surrealists & Old Masters.’
For more information and contact details: http://www.cristinaschek.com or http://www.cristinaschek.co.uk
We would have hoped that more people had been able to enjoy her fabulous pieces in person, but in light of the current situation, we hope she will display her work in the window Gallery space again to enable others to enjoy her work as much as those that have had the privilege so far.
SUPPORTING ART IN THE COMMUNITY
N.B. We love the red frame from Leigh Gallery in Hampton that ‘Fern Boy’ resides within.