Christine Read is an artist living and working in the Northern Rivers region in NSW, Australia. She works in acrylics, oils,  pencil and also enjoys the old craft of hand silk screen printing and sells tea towels printed with Australiana designs. Tea towels can be purchased online here. She has a studio set in a picturesque rural area close to the village of Lennox Head and in easy reach of Byron Bay, Mullumbimby, Ballina and the Tweed Valley. The home studio can be visited by appointment but you can see her work at the Lennox Arts Collective Gallery 2/72 Ballina St Lennox Head, which is open every day 10am – 3pm. She has been  represented by Agora Gallery, New York, Breathing Colours Balmain, NSW and Art Piece Gallery, Mullumbimby. In December 2019 Christine was filmed and interviewed by Graeme Stevenson from the program ‘Put some Colour in your Life’. And you can see it here!

My Grandmother’s Chinese Vase [SOLD]

”Abundance’ oil on canvas 61 x 91cm [SOLD]

Indian Summer [SOLD]

Christmas Poinciana Bowl

Artist sketchbook

Through the trees to the Valley of the Tweed. Acrylic on canvas 76 x 76 cm

The Tweed River acrylic on canvas 100 x100cm $990.00

‘In the afternoon’ acrylic on canvas 61 x 76cm [SOLD]

Gum Blossom – ink and wash, framed [SOLD]

Handprinted art tea towels – Magpies $22.00 each

Renaissance – acrylic on canvas [SOLD]

Lennox Head Sunrise Detail – SOLD and proceeds donated to Bushfire Recovery!

Flowering 61 x 61cm acrylic on canvas [SOLD]

Prior to full retirement in 2016,  Dr Christine Read, was for more than twenty years a family doctor in Manly, NSW and later a sexual health physician and Medical Director of Family Planning, NSW. She comments on the transition;

‘Art was at the centre of my life as a child and adolescence and I always had a dream that I could become a full time artist. The interesting thing is that my life of medicine has really led me on to teaching art and leading art retreats as I use the communication skills I learned at the bedside and the education skills I learned as a medical educator. I have a sense of leading people on a holistic creative journey that improves their approach to their lives and has therefore extended my role in helping with emotional, physical and mental health in the art studio.’

Christine holds weekly art classes on Wednesday mornings and art workshops on Saturdays once a month on a particular subject at Lennox Arts Collective (2/72 Ballina Rd Lennox Head NSW). Saturday workshops can be booked via the website. 

There are also weekend art retreats at Christine’s home studio from time to time. You can see the next on the workshop page here. Take a wander through Christine’s home studio at this link.

With Angus at the workshop on acrylic and gouache.

Tallebudgera Creek 1 Commission acrylic on linen 91 x 61 cm

The introduction to the Botanical Drawing workshop

Seascape workshop in full swing

The waiting room at Taxpresso with Beach Infinity installed and the lovely Jane

View to the Nimbin Valley

‘Fruit and Flowers’ – lesson in the courtyard at the Nimbin Art Retreat

The roofs of Paris

At Musée d’Orsay

Icon in the Petit Palais Musée, Avignon

‘Where the Frogs Live’ 1 x 1.5m acrylic on poly cotton

The Man from Snowy River acrylic on canvas – commission

She also runs workshops for other art groups on request and organises and runs art retreats both locally and internationally. to France and England

Christine accepts commissions;  much loved subjects are seascape and botanica she has painted these specifically for waiting areas and homes to both beautify the space and to instill a sense of tranquility. To see more artwork view the Galleries.

Travel is a passion and Christine combines this with visits to art galleries, exhibitions, workshops with other artists as well as visiting museums and places of interest. These adventures and experiences can be found in her blog posts. In 2017 she decided to turn this interest into a way for other people to enjoy travel, art and culture, so developed a program of visiting overseas countries on ‘art retreats’ or ‘art adventures’. The first was to France and included Paris and Provence in 2017 and was a huge success. In 2018 it was Cornwall in England and Provence and in 2019 was Paris and the Loire Valley. In 2020 it will be Paris and Vannes in Brittany

You might like to read a profile of Christine  published in the local Lennox Wave Magazine in May 2014: ‘The Art of Christine Read’ 

We know you are a qualified doctor. Have you been practicing medicine in the area? What field of medicine do/did you specialise in? Are you still practicing?