Christina Hutchings is a Bermudian artist and architect who does painting & sculpture or sculpture & painting or something that is in between painting & sculpture, using a variety of media, collage, and found objects to create art in three dimensions. Hutchings describes how her experience as an architect has helped to shape her thinking as an artist: “In the architectural design process, the idea is represented as a diagram, the diagram drives the organization of spaces in plan, section and elevation. I am in love with this way of working.”
But she combines this process with “a more intuitive approach—something in the studio catches [my] eye, one thing follows another and the piece seems to make itself.”
“When I begin a piece,” she says, “I think of it [both] as a painting and as an object…The frame defines a space in which to work and provides a boundary either to respect, or disregard with extensions and additions. At some point the pieces will be stacked one on top of another. And I will think of them as a stack of sketchbooks.
“The fact that Bermuda is a small British island situated in the Atlantic Ocean is a major influence. I cannot help but think of a lifeboat situation. I am surprised by what has inspired me: … school images, life boats, ships, rigging, buoys and channel markers, transistor radio broadcasts of Gemini space capsule launches, submarines, lines of rope, nautical charts, flags, undersea cables, shipping routes, a ride on the ferry.”
—Kim Aubrey
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High Tide, gouache,coloured pencil and conte on wood 100″ x 70″, 2010
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Camera, gouache on paper, gouache on wood and electrical tape 24″ x 22″ varies, 2011
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Coordinates, ink and pencil on vellum with Color-aid paper 10″ x 10″, 2010
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Yes No, oil on paper, gouache on paper, string and ruler 12.75″ x 16.75″, 2010
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Henry’s Office, pencil, foam core, tracing paper, painted vellum and cardboard mounted on board 12.75″ x 16.75″, 2011
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Site Plan, gouache on paper cup and grid paper 12.75″ x 16.75″, 2006-2012
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Classroom, gouache on paper, and gouache on paper mounted on wood 12.75″ x 16.75″, 2011
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Book Cover, oil on paper and acrylic on hinged wood panel 12.75″ x 29″ varies, 2011-2012
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Book Jacket, gouache on paper, charcoal on paper mounted on wood 22″ x 22″ varies, 2004-2012
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Sunday Night, wind gage, barograph paper, painted paper mounted on board 12.75″ x 16.75″, 2010
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Gemini Capsule, gouache on paper cup mounted on painted paper 12.75″ x 16.75″, 2006-2011
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Walled Garden, gouache on paper, electrical tape on board and painted kite sticks 12.75″ x 16.75″, 2011
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Christina Hutchings was born and grew up in Bermuda, but lived and worked in New York City as an architect and designer for many years before returning to the island to live in 2008. She holds a BFA in Painting from Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, and a Master’s degree in Architecture from the University of Virginia. Christina has received visual arts fellowships from The MacDowell Colony, The Edward Albee Foundation and others. She has exhibited her work in galleries in the U.S. and Bermuda, and her work was selected for inclusion in the Bermuda Biennial in 2010 and 2012. A number of her paintings have been purchased for the Bermuda National Gallery’s Permanent Collection.
Photos of Christina’s artwork were taken by Ann Spurling.
would like to see more of Ms. Hutchings work.