Ode to the Chinese Horse

With a serious dedication to arts and education over the years, Christine Mariotte has studied and taught from NY to CA. She began as a high school art teacher before pursuing a masters degree in art education in Rochester, NY.

In 1981 she and her family moved west where she started teaching at Brooks College in CA. It was there that she gained experience in fashion design course work and taught textiles and fashion illustration. Simultaneously she bought a mail order business and sold art supplies to fiber artists across the country as well as taught workshops and classes in dyeing and textile painting. After selling the business, she continued to teach and in 2000, she wrote the Art of Silk Painting. “Retirement” led her to Tryon in 2008 where she has continued her textile art and painting as well as teaching art, conduction workshops and classes. “I enjoy Chinese Brush, acrylic and watercolor painting and all forms of textile art, especially painting on silk.”

This horse was inspired by the Chinese porcelain horses often seen in museums done in ceramic with an overall crackle effect and elaborate saddle and bridle. “Images of horses are very prevalent in Chinese art which I have studied for many years. I am adding 3-D pieces to the saddle and trim and the rest of the horse will have a Trompe- l’oeil effect of crackle over the entire body and the effect of light and shadow on the trims.”