Maria-Cristina Gardiner

Maria-Cristina Gardiner grew up in Italy. She studied art for five years at the Florence Institute of Art to undergraduate level, gaining an Art Diploma with Distinction.

In the UK, Cristina returned to study Architecture at Birmingham, becoming a chartered Architect, and then at Bath University gaining an accreditation in Building Conservation. She worked for several years as a conservation architect in Birmingham, the Black Country, and wider Midlands.

Cristina describes herself as a landscape artist and her work varies from surreal urban mash-ups to large scale abstractions, all borne from strong emotions in response to place. Her view is that the ‘natural world’ is hardly ever an untouched concept. The philosophical and ‘immanent’ essence of a place with histories, intangible heritage, quality of space, light, colour, dynamism, and the countless ways they interact, shape the emotional spirit of a place; these are all of the matters that influence Cristina’s approach. In the studio she reimagines the essence of what captured her attention gaining further insight by reworking embodied observations; her paintings emerge slowly and provide an insight and a way to interpret the concept of place and of the world as they draw on her architectural experience, her Italian origins and her sense of belonging here in the UK.

Cristina paints mainly with oils but also sketches outside with charcoal, watercolours, or inks. She practices printmaking and considers the elaborate processes that printmaking offers, as invaluable tools for visual analysis and development.