ABOUT THE ARTIST
exploring the quiet weight of history and the emotional resonance of the objects we choose to keep
I’m drawn to heirlooms, handmade artifacts, and architectural fragments—things that carry the marks of time and touch. Influenced by vintage interiors, aged textiles, wildflowers, and botanical forms, my work weaves together personal memory and a broader sense of place. Through layered surfaces, fresh and vibrant colour palettes, and intimate scale, I consider how memory lingers in material objects and how our stories continue through physical things, reflecting on themes of inheritance, care, and the whispered narratives embedded in the everyday.
I work with acrylic paint, acrylic mediums, ink, oil pastels, and other mixed media, creating expressive, contemporary botanical paintings rooted in a modern visual language, that celebrate what has been preserved and what continues to grow. My process is grounded in intuition and discovery—carving shapes from negative space, allowing forms to emerge gradually through accumulated marks and veils of colour. I begin with a bright ground, allowing it to peek through or vibrate beneath softer, muted tones. The interplay between layers—what is revealed and what is concealed—mirrors the way memory and history surface over time. I am drawn to simple shapes, expressive line work, and joyful colour. Flowers and botanical arrangements, vintage vessels, and textures reminiscent of old textiles are recurring motifs, each a tribute to time, history, and the enduring presence of the things we hold close.
Meet Christie
Christie Baker is a self-taught Canadian painter whose work explores memory, material, and the soft-spoken significance of everyday objects. Influenced by vintage interiors, aged textiles, wildflowers, and botanicals, her paintings reflect a deep appreciation for the handmade and the emotional resonance of the things we choose to keep.
Born in Edmonton and raised in Calgary, Ottawa, and Toronto, Christie spent twenty years in Vancouver, where she raised her daughter, before returning to Toronto in 2019. She began painting in her 50s during the uncertainty of the pandemic, discovering a deeply personal, intuitive form of expression. A published writer of creative non-fiction with a professional background in beauty and fashion, she brings a strong sense of narrative, and appreciation for aesthetics, to her art.
Christie works from her home-studio in Toronto’s Annex neighbourhood, where she lives with her husband, Matt, and their cat, Giorgio. She began exhibiting her work in 2022, and her work is now held in private and corporate collections across North America. Christie serves as Vice Chair of the Board of Directors for the Artists’ Network, and is an active member of many arts organizations throughout Canada.
