Christine So Paintings

A moody yet vibrant California sunset. Oil paintings on wood have a very different feel than on canvas. There is a smoothness from the layers of sanded white gesso underneath and the...

The graceful arcs of this botanical painting call to mind Chinese ink brush paintings or Japanese textiles. The silhouette is that of a money tree, a plant traditionally believed to ...

The butter yellow glow of a summer sky at sunrise. The silhouette of one long graceful madrone branch hanging low. The darker olive green undercoat was painted thinly and allowed to ...

A scene from an early hike in the woods when the rising sun was backlighting the trees. The native California madrone tree has such beautifully twisted and bending branches while its...

The graceful arcs of this botanical painting call to mind Chinese ink brush paintings or Japanese textiles. The silhouette is that of a money tree, a plant traditionally believed to ...

This is a combination of painting and photography, the antique cyanotype process. The silhouette of the plant was first drawn, then painted not with ink or paint, but with light-sens...

This unique multistep technique is a combination of a painting and a photograph or monotype. Cyanotypes are a kind of alternative photographic process from the 1800s. The chemicals a...

This unique multistep technique is a combination of a painting and a photograph or monotype. Cyanotypes are a kind of alternative photographic process from the 1800s. The chemicals a...

The different darker and lighter layers of this painting are thin and sheer, each showing through the next, which gives a softness and glow. You can see the dark pencil lines outlini...

This unique multistep technique is a combination of a painting and a photograph or monotype. Cyanotypes are a kind of alternative photographic process from the 1800s. The chemicals a...

Framed to 44 x 30 x 2 inches. The artwork itself measures 40 x 26 inches. Arches 100% cotton watercolor paper framed in a white 2-inch deep solid wood box frame. The intricate patt...

Each 20 x 20 inch canvas is framed in a separate 2 inch deep solid wood floater frame, increasing the dimensions to 21. 5 x 21.5 inches. Total span together is 44 x 22". Hung with...

This original oil painting on birchwood panel is painted in the shades of pale green wildflowers that one sees along forest paths and clearings as summer approaches. This is the silh...

This is a monochromatic rendering of branches of the native Californian madrone tree. There are two shades of the same green, the darker leaves being the thin slightly translucent fi...

A pale shell pink sky at sunrise seen through tree branches. These are branches of a Dancing Peacock Japanese maple tree with its huge 9-pointed leaves. This is essentially a paint...

The calm shades of a winter sky at sunrise. The silhouette of long graceful liquid ambar tree branches hanging low. The edges of the leaves are not sharp but are softened as if the w...

The bright glow of a summer sky at sunrise. The silhouette of a single magnolia tree branch with its curving curling leaves. The darker grass green undercoat was painted in transluce...

Original acrylic painting on 24 x 48 inch canvas with 1/5 in inch deep clean white sides. Unframed. This is the fourth in the artist's ‘Twilight’ series of nine monochrome botanical...

Both painting and photograph, a painted print. This is a multistep combination of painting and a kind of alternative photographic process from the 1800s: cyanotype. The outline of th...

This is a painting of the Japanese maple in my front yard. The red of the branches is a thin, sheer under layer and the creamy robin’s egg blue sky light-filled sky was painted on to...

This is an oil painting of the deep red Japanese maple in my front yard. The red of the branches is a thin, sheer under layer and the creamy robin’s egg blue sky light-filled sky was...

This is a combination of painting and photography, the antique cyanotype process. The silhouette of the plant was first drawn, then painted not with ink or paint, but with light-sens...

Painted on birch wood panel and framed in a 1.5 " deep white solid wood floater frame. The same frame is now on the other tree paintings this size by the artist, Afternoon Bay Laurel...

This is a ‘dancing peacock Japanese maple’ (Acer Japonicum Aconitifolium) also known as ‘Maiku-jaku' in Japanese. Its massive leaves have nine points instead of 5. They can be as b...

This unique multistep technique is a combination of a painting and a photograph or monotype. Cyanotypes are a kind of alternative photographic process from the 1800s. The chemicals a...

This is a combination of painting and photography, the antique cyanotype process and the biggest the artist has ever made. The silhouette of the plant was first drawn, then painted not with ink or paint, but with light-sensitive photo emulsion. The blue and white pattern seen in each leaf is a sun print or lensless photograph of tiny plants laid on top of the painted area. The tiny flowers in the pattern across the painted silhouette are of the same species as the larger painted flower. "Cow Parsnip" and "cow parsley" are common names for this giant white native Californian wildflower...

This is a combination of painting and photography, the antique cyanotype process. The silhouette of the plant was first drawn, then painted not with ink or paint, but with light-sens...

This is a combination of painting and photography, the antique cyanotype process. The silhouette of the plant was first drawn, then painted not with ink or paint, but with light-sens...

This unique multistep technique is a combination of a painting and a photograph or monotype. Cyanotypes are a kind of alternative photographic process from the 1800s. The chemicals a...

The graceful arcs of this botanical painting call to mind Chinese ink brush paintings or Japanese textiles. The silhouette is that of a money tree, a plant traditionally believed to ...

In her Delft Garden series, artist Christine So first drew the outline of a plant in pencil and then painted it in a dark room —not paint– but with the cyanotype light-sensitive emu...

In her Delft Garden series, artist Christine So first drew the outline of a plant in pencil and then painted it in a dark room —not paint– but with the cyanotype light-sensitive emu...

This unique multistep technique is a combination of a painting and a photograph or monotype. Cyanotypes are a kind of alternative photographic process from the 1800s. The chemicals are different from those used in black and white photography. The light-sensitive chemicals can be used to print blue and white photographs from a large negative or a person can capture the silhouette of solid objects rather like an x-ray in blue and white. In her Delft Garden series, artist Christine So first drew the outline of a plant in pencil and then painted it in a dark room —not paint– but with the cyanotype light-sensitive emulsion. When the painting had dried, she arranged plants on top of the painted silhouette in a pattern that would leave gaps like lace, carefully moved the entire bundle outside while still covered and then exposed the pattern multiple times at different angles to the sun, to achieve various shades of blue and white. The heavy cotton watercolor paper then needed to be thoroughly rinsed in order to stop the darkening process. The silhouette here is of the Giant California Tree...