Whimsy on the Wall with Christine Lowe’s Vibrant Food Art

Christine Lowe’s creative process begins with sourcing images—either from stock photography or her own photographs. From there, she embarks on a series of digital studies, contemplating whether the piece will evolve into a limited-edition print or a full-fledged painting. Once a piece is destined for painting, she projects the line work onto the canvas and traces the image, followed by the addition of colour. One of her signature techniques involves using Pébéo’s Cerne Relief Outliner, applied near the end of the process, with final touchups completing the artwork.

Born in Perth, Ontario, and raised in Almonte, Lowe studied Graphic Design at Algonquin College and has had a diverse career, including custom framing and darkroom work for a newspaper. Her childhood in the 1970s was rich with pop culture, influenced by the bold magazine illustrations, TV commercials, and cartoons of the era, particularly those inspired by Warhol, Yellow Submarine, and Peter Max.

Throughout her life, Lowe has drawn inspiration from an array of artists including Lichtenstein, Dali, Warhol, O’Keeffe, and the flowing forms of Art Nouveau. She also finds resonance in comic books, the art of Mœbius, Patrick Nagel’s sharp-edged minimalism, 70s anime, and animated films such as A Scanner Darkly, Archer, and Black Dynamite. These eclectic influences shape her distinctive style, merging pop culture and artistic traditions into vibrant, nostalgic works.

Living with epilepsy has also impacted Lowe’s approach to art. Since birth, she has experienced random spontaneous seizures, which have led her to spend much of her time at home in Cape Breton, alongside her husband, dogs, and trusty iPad. While her art is not explicitly about epilepsy, the ever-present fear of sudden death motivates her to continue working, with the condition informing the disjointed and fragmentary nature of her connection to reality.

Her oeuvre is eclectic, combining nostalgia, memory, and experience through a unique aesthetic vocabulary she has developed since 2018. Her use of expansive flat colours, contrasted with bold outlines, creates a quasi-reality in her works, evoking whimsy and nostalgia in the viewer. In particular, Lowe explores the idea of elevating materials typically associated with craft—such as cerne relief outliner, metal leaf, glitter, and metallic paints—into fine art. Her food paintings, in particular, transform everyday subjects into vibrant, tactile art objects, blending her influences with a sense of playfulness and a deeper exploration of the personal and universal experiences of nostalgia.