Christine Druitt Preston´s work has been exhibited as finalist in major Art Awards in Australia including the Jacaranda Drawing Award; priNT, Darwin Centre for Contemporary Art, NT; Hazelhurst Art on Paper Award, Hazelhurst Regional Gallery; Still: National Still Life Award, Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery; The Gosford Art Prize, Gosford Regional Gallery; Muswellbrook Art Prize Works on Paper; Cairns Inkmasters Print Award; Fremantle National Print Award; Ravenswood Australian Women's Art Prize and The Gippsland Print Award, amongst others.
Christine Druitt Preston´s work, whilst predominately print based, acknowledges the themes and practices of earlier women artists and the mostly unrecognised gentle arts, in her merging of drawing, printmaking, machine stitching, embroidery and recycled domestic textiles within her work.
I heard someone recalling Aristotle's claim that the role of art was not to represent the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance. When I look at Christine’s work, I am reminded of this truth as I see these exquisitely delicate and beautifully crafted personal worlds that explore the space between our outer world and inner existence.
I am captivated by a sense of present absence.
Rooms, domestic spaces, gardens filled with a human presence yet absent from view. I see spaces alive with memory of family and friends AND the sanctuary of the singular artist in her own space – in her room of one’s own. - Heather Whitely Robertson, Head of Learning and Participation, AGNSW, 2018
Christine graduated from Alexander Mackie College (now morphed into UNSW) and the National Art School in Sydney, before studying Lithography at New York's Alfred University, USA.
"...As an adult I have moved many times, building and visiting many ‘nests’... Places that hold memory and for which I feel a deep and abiding affinity... places for which I feel a connection, inform my practice and, through the art making process, take on a life of my making...
The patterns, textures and sounds of a lovingly nurtured garden, a dining room table that has nourished many, or a fabric detail, all hold... potential..." - Christine Druitt-Preston, 2020
