Christine Higham showcases her paintings for October gallery

By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

This month’s featured artist at the Strathmore Municipal Library is Christine Higham, who is showcasing a collection of 10 oil paintings at the facility.

A recent addition to the Strathmore community, Higham moved to town on Oct. 30, 2021 from just southwest of Calgary and has quickly found ways to become a part of the community. 

Now a director on the board of The Vault Cultural Collective and a member of the art selection committee for the Vault, she is also the president of the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints’ women’s group. 

Higham described her love of art having stemmed from her childhood and is something she has never stopped persisting with.

“When I was a girl, my family didn’t have a lot of money, but we would go to galleries and to theatre and my mother would play classical music all the time,” said Higham. “When I was a teenager we lived in Ottawa and I went to the National Museum of Canada and the National Gallery of Canada.”

Upon exploring the galleries, she came across J. E. H. MacDonald’s Tangled Garden, inspiring in her a love of art and a desire to participate.

Taking art classes in high school and studying interior design through her post-secondary education, Higham was mostly engaged in drawing prior to taking painting classes, taking a liking to the employment of more colour and texture.

“I’ve been in curated exhibitions and co-curated exhibitions for the past 19 years, (but) this is my first solo exhibition,” explained Higham. “I titled it ‘People in Places that Love, and Things that I Love.’ It is a conglomeration of things that I have done over the years that show my purpose for art.”

Never one to stop learning, Higham is currently enrolled with the University of Calgary pursuing a visual arts degree in the fine arts program.

Though her primary and preferred medium is oils, she is actively expanding her practice to other mediums and fields through her continued education. 

“The reason I paint is because I see beauty in the world all around me and I want to share that with people. I feel like the purpose of my art is to uplift people,” said Higham. “When you paint something on a canvas, you preserve it forever, and the varnish that I put on my paintings lasts for 100 years. Instead of being hidden away in a photo album or on a phone, it is up there for you to always look at and enjoy.”

Higham’s display will be available for observation at the library until the end of October. None of her works are listed for sale.