Christine Blyth is not the first self-proclaimed introvert to find a home in art and an avenue for (quietly) expressing the creative impulse. Sometimes, originality thrives best in seclusion, free of outside influences and in constructive use of solitude.
“Originally, I started nursing school after high school but soon realized it was not a good fit for this introvert,” says the native Charlestonian, who graduated cum laude from the University of Central Florida. “I loved science and helping people and found my place in medical laboratory sciences.”
For Blyth, lab testing, the mechanics of instrumentation and working behind the scenes held greater appeal. She had moved to Orlando years earlier for her first husband’s job and plied her profession in the Central Florida area for almost 25 years before coming home to Charleston.
Today, with her four children grown and retirement from medicine on the horizon, Blyth pours her creative energies into painting, drawing and photography. Her voice is conveyed in abstracts “drenched in color with acrylic paint, charcoal, pencil and crayon.”
Blyth, who attended Blessed Sacrament Elementary School and Bishop England High School in Charleston, says she creates to find balance and peace in herself and to leave an introvert’s mark on an extroverted world. Which are also among the reasons she returned to Charleston.
“My husband, Christopher, and I moved back to Charleston in 2015 to be near both our families,” she says. “We both loved growing up in Charleston and felt the pull to come home. We have a blended family of two boys and two girls, all grown and out in the world. They all have artistic talents of their own. Me, I’m from a large family of 10, two brothers and five sisters. I’m second to last.”
Blyth suggests that her love of sewing, quilting and fashion design may have set the pattern for her life. “By age 10, I was sewing outfits for myself. In high school, I was sewing most of my clothes and making dresses for the prom. I taught myself to combine patterns and alter them to make my own designs,” she says. “I had hoped to go to school for fashion design, but that plan ultimately didn’t work out. I continued to create clothes for myself and outfits for my kids as they came along. As they grew older, they needed fewer ‘handmades,’ but I still needed to create. That’s when I turned to quilting.”
After establishing herself in the field of medicine and raising a family, Blyth’s return to art was hastened by entering a regional quilting show. Seeing all the beautiful art quilts on display, she promptly decided to return to school to study art.
“I attended Seminole State College in Central Florida and fell in love with painting as my means of creative expression,” she says. Abstracts were a natural progression. “In art school, I primarily focused on representational work, still life, self-portraits, landscapes to fulfill assignments. But there were a few experimental pieces that underpinned a later move to abstract work. The primary shift to abstract art came after a falling-out with a loved one that was very hard for me to process. Eventually, I just started putting paint on the canvas with no plan, trying to tap into the emotions as my guide. This was so incredibly cathartic!”
It was a close friend who introduced Blyth to the term “intuitive painting” and helped set her on the path she follows today. “I knew that was how I wanted to paint, in the moment, aware of my emotions, driven by joy,” she says. “I have tried to step back into representational, but it does not fulfill me. I am an abstract artist. I hope the viewer can relate in an emotional way, find joy and peace. If I had to have a label, it would be ‘contemporary abstract experimentalist.’”
Her principal medium is acrylic paint, but many of her pieces also utilize graphite, water-soluble crayons, pastels or charcoal. Blyth says she loves making marks in her work, describing herself as a lifelong doodler.
Blyth’s principal influences have not so much been revered artists of the past but an online artist community in which she participates. “It has the most amazing, generous leader,” she says. “She and the rest of the community really support and encourage us to find our own artistic voice. I would call them my peer-mentors.”
For the past six years, Blyth has been associated with the Charleston Artist Guild. She has exhibited in the North Charleston Art Festival, winning first place, honorable mentions and the Mayor’s purchase award, and she has sold several pieces. “I have also received honorable mentions in Signature Exhibition shows sponsored by the Charleston Artist Guild and was the featured artist in August,” she says.
Most satisfying to Blyth is the opportunity to discuss her work with people and to learn the ways in which her paintings affect them. “I also enjoy discussing my process, as the outcome does not always reveal the whole journey, and it is the journey that matters most to me,” she explains.
Blyth says her retirement in December will free more time and energy for art. “My medical laboratory job is fast-paced, stressful and analytical. It requires intense focus to detail, multitasking and high workloads, very left-brained,” she says. “In order to perform this work, I need to have a means of recovery from it, a way to disconnect from the stress and find peace. A long walk in nature will do it, but spending time in my studio works best. I can slow down, get into my right brain and create. I do what only I can do; I create with my artistic voice. But I think being a full-time artist is not just painting more, it’s how we have viewed the world and how we think about life and its impact on our soul.” *
Bill Thompson is the author of Lightwaves: A Film Critic’s Odyssey.
