Christine Beirne

I’m excited to share that I was recently interviewed by Urban Artist Magazine. The conversation covered my artistic journey, how my Morning Practice drawings have become an important part of my daily life, and the ways those drawings continue to influence my larger paintings. We also talked about working from direct observation, painting en plein air, and how spending time truly looking at a place has become central to my practice. As artists, we don’t often stop to reflect on how our work has evolved. This interview gave me the opportunity to do just that, and I’m grateful to Urban Artist Magazine for the thoughtful conversation. If you’d like to read the interview, you can find it here: Read the interview: https://heyzine.com/flip-book/ea878857bf.html I hope you enjoy the conversation!

This April, I won’t be open for Ojai Studio Artists’ Second Saturday. After months of living in between, our belongings are finally being returned following the fire just before Thanksgiving. The timing overlaps with Second Saturday, and I need to be present as everything comes back into our home—unpacked, checked, and, piece by piece, put back into place. The construction is mostly complete, and this marks a long-awaited shift: we’re moving home. I’m also looking forward to getting my studio back in order—over the past months it’s become a kind of “command central” for the construction process, with all sorts of things finding their way in that don’t normally belong there. It will be good to return it to a space for making. It feels significant in a quiet way. Not just returning to a space, but rebuilding a sense of order and familiarity after a period that has asked for a lot of flexibility and patience. I’ll be taking a break from unpacking to participate in Cross Pollination: The Intersection of Art and Nature—a plein air paint out at the Ventura Botanical Gardens on Friday, April 10 from 9–4. Admission is free that day, so if you’re in the area, come by and say hello. While I won’t be open for Second Saturday, I do plan to step out and visit some of my fellow neighborhood artists—many whose studios I rarely get to see since we’re usually all showing at the same time. Later, I may head back to the gardens as the paint out continues through the weekend. And just a few days earlier, I’m excited to be part of something new: I’m included in a group of artists from Studio Channel Islands Art Center now showing on Artsy, with an in-person exhibition opening April 4 from 4–6 pm. This show marks the launch of that program and brings the work into a physical space. If you’re not able to make it out in person this month, I invite you to visit my website. Any work purchased directly there supports something close to home—10% is donated to the Ojai Valley Land Conservancy. As a landscape painter, I’m deeply grateful for the places they’ve helped preserve. La Cañada Larga Road, in particular, is one I hold close—it’s hard to imagine it ever having been at risk of development. Supporting OVLC feels like a way of giving back to the land that continues to give so much. Thank you, as always, for your continued support—I look forward to welcoming you back soon, once things have settled. —Christine

On view at Integrity Wealth in Ojai through April 24, this exhibition brings together landscape drawings rooted in Ojai and selected works from my Dreamscape series. Together, they reflect two ways I move through place — direct observation and slow excavation — both shaped by the land that surrounds us. The drawings are grounded in observation. Many are based in and around Ojai — places I return to repeatedly because they continue to shift, subtly, with light, season, and memory. The Dreamscape paintings move in a different direction. They are less about a specific site and more about the felt experience of terrain — erosion, atmosphere, distance, and time. Supporting the Land That Shapes the Work Integrity Wealth does not take a commission on artwork sales. Because of that generosity, a portion of each sale from this exhibition — 20% — will be contributed to the Ojai Valley Land Conservancy. I’ve chosen to extend that same commitment to my studio practice as a whole: 20% of all original artwork sold directly through my website also supports the Conservancy. As a plein air and landscape artist — and simply as someone who loves being outdoors — I’m deeply aware that the places I paint are not guaranteed. They exist because people protect them. One place especially close to me is La Cañada Larga Road. There was a time when development felt imminent there. I remember hearing that and feeling physically unsettled — the thought that this open stretch of land, this quiet geometry of road cutting through hills, might disappear. That I might not be able to stand there again and look out across that space. The Ojai Valley Land Conservancy raised the funds to purchase and preserve it. Now, as with so many protected landscapes, the need is ongoing — stewardship, maintenance, care. Preservation isn’t a single act. It’s a long-term promise. If my work is rooted in landscape, it feels only right that the work also gives back to it. Additional Exhibitions I’ll also have work included in the Member Show at Studio Channel Islands Art Center, on view March 7 – March 20, with an opening reception at 4:00 pm on Saturday, March 7 at the Blackboard Gallery in Camarillo. And I’m part of a curated group of present and past Artists in Residence at SCIART, now featured on the Artsy platform. The collection highlights regional artists exploring a range of mediums and approaches, expanding visibility beyond our immediate area. Closing Thoughts When I think about this season of work — drawings made from walking the edges of Ojai, paintings built slowly in the studio, conversations happening in galleries and offices — it all comes back to one thing: attention. Attention to place. Attention to memory. Attention to what could be lost — and what can still be protected. La Cañada Larga Road is more than a subject to me. It’s a reminder that landscapes are not permanent unless we choose to care for them. The fact that it remains open — that I can return again and again to draw it — is not accidental. It’s because people acted. The work currently hangs in a space devoted to planning for the future. In a small way, this is my version of that — reinvesting in the land that shapes the work. If you’ve ever felt relief stepping into open land… If you’ve ever had a place you hoped would still be there tomorrow… Then you understand why this matters to me. I hope you’ll stop by before April 24.