American artist Christina Burch’s paintings are inspired by a variety of art and cultural contexts.  Her extensive travels in Italy, acupuncture and oriental medicine education, and Japanese painting, helped shape her unique style. Characterized by vivid color, stylized ornament, clean surfaces, lyrical imagery, Burch has gained an important global clientele. The artist meets with her subject and together they decide on a setting, tone and composition for the portrait collaboration.

For the portrait of gallery owner Blair Clarke the artist chose a photograph she took which had a slight classical expression, similar to a classic Italian painting yet Burch elected a contemporary approach to the final composition. Blair is an old Gaelic word for a field, which brought to mind the Italian word campo which also means field. In Rome, many are familiar with the famous Campo di Fiori or Field of Flowers, which is one of the city’s famous piazzas and the site of a beautiful outdoor market of flowers, fruits, produce and spices. This image, derived from her name, suited her and captured the idea of abundance, sensuality and something exotic. From there, the palette and imagery developed in a very fluid way, and the resulting image is quite lyrical.