Cristina Fournier - Arte y Colores, Costa Rica

Cristina Fournier
Cristina was born in Costa Rica, but has lived in many countries. She concluded high school at the
Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy, where she graduated with honors and received a merit award in
Arts. She obtained an Undergraduate Degree in Plastic Arts with emphasis in painting, and
graduated Summa Cum Laude in the University of Costa Rica. When she married she moved to
New York, where she worked as a post card illustrator and designer, and in the textile industry.
Upon her return to Costa Rica, in 1968, she dedicated to teaching art in high schools and in
universities (the Science and Letter School, and the Art School of the University of Costa Rica).
After eight years teaching, she retired to dedicate her time exclusively to her painting; and, since
1978 she was been painting with oils and watercolors. It is interesting to note that her paintings
have a previous drawing, and she gets her inspiration from nature, on place. She organizes her
painting mentally, and paints directly over the canvas, doing little touchups afterwards, using the
impressionistic style. She creates realistic orchid paintings, and expressionistic roosters, which can
get to be very realistic when she emphasizes their feathers and poise; she can also be very
expressionistic in the movement she accomplishes with thick and steady brushstrokes. During her
travels to France, the Netherlands, Germany, Greece and Israel, as well as the United States and
Latin America, she managed to capture the atmosphere and the colors of the different landscapes.
She loves flowers; she cultivates orchids, ginger, heliconias, lilies and roses. She also paints birds
and other big and small animals, everything from frogs to horses.
She continues to teach art, but just on short periods of time. She was been to several countries to
attend symposiums and teach groups of professional painters. She gives conferences in English
and Spanish. On 2002, Berry College invited her as Art teacher of the year, to teach a course on
open air landscaping.
She has done more than eighty exhibitions in different countries across the globe. Her paintings
can be found in museums and private collections. Some have been given as gifts from the
government of Costa Rica to diplomats and presidents. Between these, we can mention the one
given to Mr. Carlos Andrés Pérez, President of Venezuela in 1979; to the Spanish Minister of
Foreign Relations in 1982, to his Royal Highness King Fahd from Saudi Arabia in 1983, to the
Baroness Lady Gloria Hoper from the United Kingdom in 1985, to Mr. Nakasone Yasuhiro, First
Minister of Japan in 1986, to Mr. Mikhail Gorbachev, President of Russia in 1990. The Costa Rican
embassy gave one painting to the UNESCO, in the celebration of the exhibition of Cristina Fournier
in the Miró Hall, Paris in 1989, and to the European Community Office in Belgium in 1991. On the
Fiftieth Anniversary of the United Nations, the Costa Rican government, represented by President
Figueres Olsen, offered the painting "Oda a la Selva Dormida" to her Majesty Queen Beatrix of the
Netherlands. Furthermore, the board of directors of Berry College of Mount Berry, Georgia,
offered a Fournier painting to Mr. Neil Armstrong in 2002.
Cristina Fournier

Cristina Fournier
Awards and acknowledgements:
1975 - Honorable mention for "Gallo Cantando". Juivissy, Paris, France.
1979 - Áncora Award in Painting. La Nación Newspaper.
1980 - Honorary Citizen of the City of New Orleans.
1991 - National Painting Award Aquileo J. Echeverría, Costa Rica.
Source:
http://naturepainting.net
Cristina Fournier