Perienne Christian
- Faculty
- Bespoke Courses Faculty
- Alumni, 2007
Biography
Perienne Christian studied at Bath Spa University and the Leipzig Academy of Art before completing The Drawing Year at The Prince's Drawing School (now the Royal Drawing School) in 2007. Since then, she has exhibited regularly in group shows (with two solo shows) and worked as an artist in residence at Kensington Palace, Chats Palace arts centre, and Pignano in Tuscany, Italy. In 2010 Christian was shortlisted for the Jerwood Drawing Prize. From 2008-2011 she modelled for a painting by the artist Lucian Freud, an experience she found beneficial to her own art practice. She teaches on various art courses, including at the Royal Drawing School's Drawing School Central and on The Foundation Year. Through her work, Christian looks at story, dream and landscape and is currently investigating ancient walkways and pilgrimage through the mediums of painting drawing, etching and artist books.
On drawing
For me, the act of drawing has a primacy to it, giving me a connection to what I am depicting, in a way that is unlike any other medium. When drawing, I feel as though I have plugged into a life force that could be described as the creative impulse. It is a fundamental part of my practice and I am often to be found drawing in public parks, depicting human interactions within these constructed natural spaces. Through drawing, I feel I am able to convey multiple worlds, stories and ideas within the one pictures plane. As a drawing tutor, I have noticed that when students are able to make that connection between what they are seeing in space and the two dimensional paper and combine this with intuitive mark making, a wonderful shift occurs.
