About the Artist

Born in Costa Rica , Cristina has lived in many countries: She graduated from high school at Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy , California , where she received the Medal of Merit in Fine Arts. She studied at the school of Fine Arts at the University of Costa Rica graduating Suma Cum Laude and obtaining a Masters Degree in Education and Painting.

She married and went to live in New York in 1960. There she worked as a children's book freelance illustrator for Doubleday, W.W. Norton and Abelard Schuman. At Norcross she worked as a greeting card designer. She then worked as colorist and designer at Lowenstein's. In the seventies she came back to Costa Rica after having lived in Honduras and Chile , and establishes her studio in San Jose while also teaching at the University of Costa Rica .

She paints 80 paintings for the Irazú Hotel and becomes well known for her watercolors and fighting cocks.

Alter teaching for eight years she dedicates full time to painting in oil and watercolor and becomes well known for her impeccable technique in water color, using no pencil and painting directly her compositions. Her large oil canvases denote the baroque tropical nature and the magnificent tropical flowers. The landscapes have the movement of the wind and the light of a sunny day. She travels to Europe in the spring and summer captivating the wild flowers and the colors of the Mediterranean in France , Greece and Israel . In the United States she paints the bluebonnets of Texas and the autumn atmosphere of Washington D.C.

Having made more than eighty personal Art shows, she has been given awards in France , United States , Guatemala and Costa Rica . Inquisitive and adventuresome, she is prompt to go and experience new places where she finds revitalizing inspiration. Her home with a pond and garden, are also described in her paintings, not forgetting the birds and animals within.

In 2002 she was invited to be the Artist in Residence to teach art in Berry College , at Mount Berry , Georgia . The Costa Rican Government donated her painting: “Ode to the Dormant Jungle” for the 50th Anniversary of the United Nations.