Christine Gates is a printmaker, digital artist, photographer and arts educator living in Melbourne, Australia.

She completed a Bachelor of Arts at The Sydney Art Institute in 1989 and a Master of Fine Arts in Print Media at The University of NSW College of Fine Arts in Sydney in 2004. Short courses have included workshops in Australia and Italy, with New York Printmaker, Dan Welden. In Sydney Christine studied with Japanese trained Printmaker, Roslyn Keane. These studies have been expanded by research, over many years, in Europe, the United States, Mexico and Peru.

Christine has been exhibiting since 1988. Her solo exhibitions include shows in Sydney, Melbourne, Daylesford, Portland and Warrnambool in Australia and in Lisbon, Portugal and Guanajuato, Mexico. Group exhibitions have been held in Singapore and London and in major Australian cities. In 2008 Christine was invited to hold a major exhibition of works on paper at the Museo del Pueblo de Guanajuato, Mexico.

Collections holding Christine’s work include the Governor of Guangjou, China, the Embassy of Australia in Mexico, the Museo del Pueblo de Guanajuato and private collections in Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, the USA, Portugal and Spain.

In Portland, Victoria Christine designed and coordinated the Multimedia Art Certificate for SouthWest TAFE. She has worked in arts education for 20 years. Christine has been an Artist-in-Residence at The Firestation Print Workshop in Melbourne, Australia since 2007.

“Visual arts have been, and continue to be, my life work. My early experience as a film editor in ABC Current Affairs, taught me the importance of the image as one of the most powerful forms of communication. The current focus of my work is the interconnection between humans and their environment, a relationship so well understood by indigenous Australians.”

Equipment includes a MacBook Pro computer, a Canon digital SLR camera and various film cameras. The handprints are made using an etching press or handprinted with a Japanese baren.

Photopolymer intaglio plates have been made with inkjet transparencies or with film positives made on an Imagesetter. Digital prints have been made on an Epson 9600 on Hahnemuhle rag paper and as C-Type digital photographic prints.

The unique state prints are an amalgamation of hand cut lino and wood blocks printed with water based inks and over laid with silver and gold leaf and Japanese pigments.

You can find more information about artists, studios, workshops and galleries here:

www.baldessinpress.com

www.firestationprintstudio.com.au