Once he realized that he could
concentrate his passion for painting into a career, Christensen opened
his own Art Gallery in Yountville, California, a small picturesque town
in the heart of the Napa Valley. This venture proved very successful
netting Christensen exposure in national magazines and newspapers and a
national television spot on “WINE COUNTRY LIVING”. Christensen however,
decided to close his gallery in 2003, allowing him to devote his full
attention to painting. Christensen continues to paint stunning images
that remind us of the Wine Country lifestyle and delight those who
collect his art.
Christensen’s
“wine art”
begins where most contemporary wine artists leave off. Eric loves to
capture the romance of the wine country, which he points out,
“is so much more than just the wine”.
Collectors of
Christensen’s art typically own several of his creations and enjoy the
varied themes they portray; lifelike landscapes and intimate still life
paintings that incorporate a variety of elements including food, flowers
or fruit with appropriate background settings.
Style and
Technique
By “pushing”
watercolor paint to its absolute limits, Christensen has invented a new
way to paint with this traditional medium. Using non-standard watercolor
paper and employing a dry-brush technique, Eric starts out with thin
washes then builds meticulously to over 30 subsequent layers of paint.
You can actually see the build-up of the paint layers when you look
closely at his originals. Eric’s technique allows him to achieve much
stronger colors and shadows than can be found with traditional
watercolor art; his paintings actually appear more like an oil painting
on canvas.
Christensen
achieves his lifelike hyper-realistic images through his genius for
understanding the technical aspects of his subjects and his dedication
to capturing an image as it truly exists. His love of natural materials
particularly flowers; fruits and vegetables also combine to make this
possible. He possesses the stunning ability to paint the subtleties of
light traveling through a flower petal or its reflection off a wine
glass. Composition is one more factor that sets Christensen’s paintings
apart. Each painting is a study in the balance between texture, height
and shape. The placement of objects in his paintings must all make sense
and represent a scene found in real life; in a kitchen, a wine cellar,
or in the vineyard.
