I believe that the artist’s task in contemporary narrative painting is to seize a moment, an image; isolate, identify and transform it into a picture. Painting exists in a visual world that evokes an emotional response, an expression of the human condition. What is evoked in the viewer's reaction, the essential silent witness, is subject to their own personal interpretation. The painting partially tells the story, while the onlooker in drawn in as a participator because the story continues on in his or her own mind. In my paintings the narrative occurs between the painting and the person who beholds it.

My extensive European experience with Old Master paintings has made me realize that painting is Alchemical, the transformation of pigments, woods, glues, metals or whatever into a new and precious object. The coloured surface of a painting is the result of chemical interactions; artists being mathematicians of colour, which is intrinsically symbolic. My images are built up in layers of colour and transparencies to enhance the tentative layers of interpretation. The viewer’s immediate response to a painting is essential to the purpose of art. My paintings are very direct.

Web: www.christabelblackman.com

Email: christabelblackman@gmail.com