christina pierce, cricket artist
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Christina Pierce - Cricket Artist

paintings by christina pierce, cricket artist

paintings by Christina Pierce, cricket artist

 

Acclaimed cricket artist, Christina Pierce, graduated from Central School of Art, London, having spent her childhood in Cornwall, where her love of the game grew from her cricket coach father. Christina has exhibited extensively in the UK and abroad, and is also the Official Artist for the Sri Lanka Premier League, SLPL.

Her paintings hang on the walls of both county cricket and International players as well as businesses and private collectors. Her exhibitions include the Royal Academy of Art, Lord’s, The Kia Oval, RAC, Albemarle Gallery, Kent House, London, Hackwood Art Festival, Tao Gallery, Mumbai, Touring exhibition, Australia and many Benefit year events for England and County players.

 

 

Farokh book signing

Cover painting by cricket artist, Christina Pierce

Chrissy was recently interviewed by The Cricketer Magazine (extract below):

the cricketer magazine interview with christina pierce, cricket artist

Paintings, statues and tattoos... cricket and art are fundamentally linked

Christina Pierce, an acclaimed artist who specialises in cricket, has focused on the similarities between the two professions.

“It’s [art] not so different to cricket in the end because hand eye co-ordination is really important in painting,” explains Pierce. “And you have to have the strength of character to deal with rejection; putting yourself out there in public.

“There’s lots of practice and hard work. And also, being able to calm down after a success [comparing to a wicket or a century] – so if you’ve had a show, or sold a painting, you get all hyper, and you’ve got to calm yourself down.”

Over the course of history, thousands of artists have depicted the game. But what inspires them to so?

“I’m not just painting a landscape – I’m more interested in the cricketers’ movements,” says Pierce. “I do a lot of sketching in the nets. When Oskar [her son] was younger, I took him to training sessions there, and it’s very difficult to get close up to cricketers in action, so the nets are really your best point of focus.

“From a distance you can tell who is who by the way they stand. I mean, you could always tell who KP is, couldn’t you! You can also tell the bowlers from their action and the way they move. And that is more interesting to me rather than the landscapes themselves.”

Yet one big question remains – with the rise of the white-ball game and the global demise of Test cricket, will this vital part of cricket’s wider culture remain prevalent?

Pierce believes so, although she accepts there are differences in the way the formats are recorded.

“It’s [T20] a lot more modern, it’s a lot more immediate,” says Pierce.” You have to be very, very quick. It’s not so much a luxurious oil painting, but It’s the energy.

“There’s a huge amount of energy – especially somewhere like India or Sri Lanka, where everything is going on. And there’s just so much energy there it inspires you. Whereas if you go to Lord’s for a beautiful sunny day of a Test match or at a village green, it’s a different level of energy.

“We’re moving into the new modern era. People are using more computer-based graphics. Art is moving forward with the T20, rather than the older pictures of the cricket ground. It’s stepping away from the pictures of the cricket ground.”

McKee agrees. “If you try and modernise the game, then more of a modern concept of what is art will maybe take over,” explains the Yorkshire-born artist. “With T20 cricket it’s more visceral, it’s more energised, so therefore that would almost lend itself to that kind of approach, or more graphic in a sense, rather than the traditional five-day game, which is quite the traditional approach to painting.

“So maybe they’ll go hand in hand, where people take on the challenge to represent that game in that particular way. So, it may be more graphic, more digital, who knows?”

While the future of cricket might be uncertain with the introduction of new formats and the struggles of old, one thing is for sure – art will continue to be a major part of the sport’s wider culture.

Expect the young stars of today – Rashid Khan, Rishabh Pant and Sam Curran, for example – to one day be immortalised through the magic of art.

 

Icons of India

icons of india - christina pierce, cricket artist

 


 

Links:

www.christopherbishop.co.uk

www.mssociety.org.uk

www.chromacolour.co.uk

www.barmyarmy.com

www.lordstaverners.org

www.piransurf.co.uk