Jennifer McChristian, Open Sesame, oil, 24 x 24.
Eleven years ago, Jennifer McChristian captured an honorable mention for her whimsical Hawaiian plein-air scene LAHAINA LEISURE. This year, she grabs attention with her unconventional feline portrait OPEN SESAME. “It’s a lighter-than-usual take,” she says of the lively likeness of her cat Sesame, mouth caught agape and whiskers akimbo in a full-throated yawn. “There’s something that’s at the same time so comical and so dramatic.” The image is perfectly suited to her spirited brushstrokes and high-contrast colors.
Born and raised in Montreal, Canada, McChristian “was always drawing from the get-go,” she says. By high school, she was earning pocket money by sketching portraits of friends. Soon after graduation, her family moved to Los Angeles, where she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts at Otis College of Art and Design. She went on to work for local animation companies while creating her own art in a tiny studio located below her apartment. Around the time computer animation began taking over the industry in the late 1990s, McChristian became obsessed with plein-air painting. She felt ready to “have faith and make that jump” to becoming a full-time fine artist in 2001. Gallery shows and professional recognition soon followed.
Today, she and her husband, Ben Fried, work in an 1,100-square-foot studio in L.A.’s Los Feliz neighborhood, not far from the home where Walt Disney grew up. In addition to their own artwork, three times a week they welcome in other artists, established and aspiring alike, for drawing workshops that are “very comfortable, cozy, and nonjudgmental”—an ideal way for McChristian to share her lifelong love of art.
Find McChristian’s work at Edward Montgomery Fine Art, Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA, and www.jennifermcchristian.com.
This story appeared in the December 2022/January 2023 issue of Southwest Art magazine.