For the Love of Lucky Ladies

Garden Painting

Apr 7

Written By Christine O'Brien

Ladybugs: These gentle, shelled, spotted tiny creatures are enchanting. Ladybugs have a nostalgic place in my childhood heart. As a child playing with friends outside, they would fly and land on us, so we chanted the nursery rhyme, “Fly Away Home,” to coax them into flight.
I create references for these paintings by purchasing live ladybugs and releasing them in the garden. Once they acclimate and become more active, I look to capture the delicateness of their presence with each other and amid the surrounding landscape. By depicting them as larger than life, I capture their detail among the background abstraction of their garden home. The contrast of their reddish rigid “candy” bodies against the billowy and soft textured garden greenery creates a beautiful duality of nature.
In many cultures, the ladybug is recognized as a widespread symbol of good luck and new beginnings because they help farmers by feasting on pests that eat or damage crops.

ladybug artinsect artgarden insect paintingladybug oil painting

Christine O'Brien

Christine’s proclivity to draw began at age five after helping her artistic mother render portraits of her siblings. She received a scholarship to study fine art at Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri, where she completed a rigorous program of classical instruction. During her junior year, Christine was selected as the sole recipient for an independent study in advanced experimental drawing and painting with Gardiner McCauley, head of the art college. Her final project, a five-foot square mixed media portrait was installed in the college reception area and published in the curriculum catalog. After graduating, Christine worked in her hometown of Chicago as a graphic designer and illustrator. Recruited to a large photography turnkey operation as a creative director and sales representative, she thrived in a career of both art and marketing. Christine moved west in the early 90’s, where she studied acrylic and oil painting at UCLA. Her affinity to paint the figure blossomed into a career as a portraiture artist. In recent years, she has drawn from both her imagination and surroundings to create imagery that combines her traditional training with a modern edge. These works include lone figures amid simplified landscapes, and enlarged depictions of secondhand collectables. She describes her work as scenes that capture a mood of beauty and contemplation. Christine lives and works in the Denver area and is collected throughout the US and abroad.

https://www.christineobrien.com