A creative life in action

Virginia Christensen at The Aviary with her abstract painting Cloudburst at the Cut (right). This is acrylic on repurposed canvas where she used a photo as reference, which was a first for her.Picture by Liam Clayton

At 75, Virginia Christensen has finally decided what she wants to be when she grows up — a painter.

Her first solo exhibition opens on Sunday, at The Aviary Collective in Childers Road.

Virginia hails from Wellington but spent part of her childhood in Gisborne where her father Ian Christensen was the local Baptist minister.

The family led an itinerant life due to her father’s ministry work and some of her schooling was in Auckland.

Returning to the East Coast in 1985 with her first husband and their two children, Virginia taught at Ngata Memorial College in Ruatōria. She went on to work in Postbank ANZ in Tokomaru Bay before returning to Auckland after Cyclone Bola.

She retired to Gisborne with husband Lyman Gardner in 2016.

Virginia has spent a lifetime delving into the creative world, despite being told by her intermediate art teacher many years ago, that she didn’t posses a creative bone in her body.

She reflects: “A creative life in action — I’ve been a writer, a potter, an eco-print artist.  I’ve knitted, sewn and quilted.  I’ve had massive gardens, cycled, joined book clubs, scuba dived, travelled, raised a family and enjoyed all of it.”

Her inspiration to take up the brush came about in 2020.

“Rosie Cruddas and Hera Clifton masterminded a pop-up community art project called Miharo.  It encouraged local artists to take an hour and create something magical to auction at their fun Friday night events.”

In 2021 she joined a five-day creative adventure online workshop with Gabbi Kitchener and Art of Flow.

“This morphed into full-time study and has been my focus for learning and experimenting and having fun in a global community of emerging and established artists over the last three years,” she said.

Virginia’s love of “intuitive painting”, (a personal form of art aimed to uncover the inner self) was also motivated by a health episode affecting her husband, in 2019. Virginia became his full-time caregiver.  She found she needed something “to anchor and heal myself”.

“I needed time out to see the beauty and joy in life and not end up wallowing in self-pity and atrophying,” she said.

Virginia works in acrylics either on canvas or watercolour paper.

Her solo exhibition is in two parts.  The first is around the Hikurangi subduction zone, pairing that with her feelings of upheaval and loss when her husband went into permanent care.  The second part is about birth and growth.

“These pieces are inspired by Matariki and my mokopuna and the joy of young life full of promise.”

Virginia sees this exhibition as a showcase of some of the things she has learned in the last three years.

“I can’t wait for the next chapters to unfold.  It will be fun to be out there  —  something a year ago I wouldn’t have even begun to contemplate.”

And her thoughts on recently turning 75? Virginia thinks Dame Judi Dench’s words sum it up pretty well — “It’s the rudest word in my dictionary, ‘retire’.  And ‘old’ is another one.  I don’t allow that in my house.  And being called ‘vintage’.  I don’t want any of those old words.  I like ‘enthusiastic.”

■  The Aviary Collective is next door to The Poverty Bay Club, 38 Childers Road, Gisborne. Virginia Christensen’s exhibition is on until April 26.