Christine Collier-Trevino : Focus on an Artist - Fall 2008 Issue of Horses in Art Magazine

Christine Collier-Trevino : Focus on an Artist

by Shirley V. Ramsey

Pirouette – Bronze on Walnut Base, Ltd. Ed. 12, 11" tall
In order to reach your goal, you must stay focused… life gets in the way… it’s easy to get distracted.” So advised Christine when I met her at the stables early one Saturday morning last spring on the eastern shore of Oahu, Hawaii. She relocated to the islands about a year previously from the Great Northwest, USA. Soft spoken, somewhat reserved, Christine grew up the daughter of an army officer and lived in many places, taking advantage of each place and incorporating what she found into her world view.

The sky was unusually hazy this morning, “Probably from the active volcano on the Big Island,” Christine informed me right after greeting me and introducing me to her two horses, subjects of much of her artworks. I was finally glad to have found her, as the last five miles after leaving the old “Kam” Highway, were making me feel as if I were on the set of LOST. How much further could I go? The Koo ala Mountains were smack in front of me, and like many of Hawaii’s mountains shot straight up into the sky like fingers on an upraised hand. Having lived in these islands for some years, I knew my way around fairly well, but this was an area I had not been to previously.

The Olympian Series: FlimFlam – Oil on Linen. Selected for display at USDF Headquarters 2007-2009

We soon got comfortable on a picnic table and chairs situated high above a very generous arena and watched some dressage workouts. Christine is also an expert in the area of dressage as her impressive resume will show.

She was well prepared for the interview and had a stack of sketchbooks and drawings on the table. Her ideas sometimes come in the middle of the night, and she jumps up immediately to jot down whatever she can remember, even adding colors she saw. This gets added to as the weeks and months go by. She said sometimes it is a year or more before the birth of a new work or project.

Basically a self-taught artist, Christine has a good background in architecture from a school in Greece. Although her mother created some art, mostly in oils, Christine started with pen and ink. She feels strongly that one cannot be all things to all people, and an artist should find which techniques work best for him or her. You can view some of Christine’s work at www.marengoink.com.

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