Drawing shadows
Cyprus-resident artist Christina Hessenberg opens a new show
GNARLED olive trees and character portraits are lovingly captured by North Cyprus-resident artist Christina Hessenberg for a new show of her work this week at Girne Municipality’s town centre “Transformer Gallery”.
The fine arts graduate and former art teacher, who moved to the island in 1985, said the light and colours of the Mediterranean had reignited her passion for life drawing, adding: “The incredible forms of old olive trees are compelling to draw.
“For me, studying their twisted and gnarled trunks inspires almost the same excitement as studying the human form.”
Ms Hessenberg aims to include more passion and drama in future works as her keen eye, honed by her work as a licensed tour guide, seeks out details of the Cyprus landscape.
“I fell in love with the island, and I never left,” she said.
The display’s 40 portraits in charcoal and soft pastels capture the individual characters of surviving centenarian trees, the unique personalities of her life models and the play of shifting sun and shadow on cacti and Cypriot pots.
“Shadows change faster than you could ever imagine,” she said, adding: “I had to go back to the same place every day to finish my portraits.
“I had a 3pm tree, a 2pm cactus or a 4pm pot and only half an hour to work while the light was right!”
Formerly a member of the Barbican Art Studios, she was influenced by American Abstract Expressionism but never abandoned traditional representational work.
Ms Hessenberg’s works first went on show at Bellapais’s Ambelia Holiday Village in 1990 and at Karaman’s Archway Gallery nine years later, before group shows at Bellapais Abbey and the Girne Public Library in 2009 and 2012.
Her latest exhibition will be opened by Girne Mayor Nidai Güngördü at 5pm on Monday at the converted former power station in Cengizhanlı Sokak, behind the Ordu Pazarı (army shop) car park.
The exhibition may be visited until Saturday, November 3 on weekdays from 10am to 5pm and on Saturdays from 10am to 3pm but will be closed on Monday, October 29 for Turkish Republic Day.