Christin Couture was born and raised in Western Massachusetts. She attended l'Ecole St. Jeanne d'Arc, taught by French Canadian nuns who encouraged her to draw. At the age of eleven, she moved with her family to a house in the country on fifty acres of woods. She was given her first box of oil paints and an easel made by her father. Since the family property bordered the State School, she became fascinated by the patients, who sometimes wandered along the paths in their pajamas when she was out horseback riding. She later drew upon these images in a series called "The Wanderers". From the top of the hill looking north she could see the outline of the Holyoke Range, an image she would paint often.
She studied at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, and received a BFA in painting in 1974. Her thesis exhibition ,"KINDERHAUS", featured a constructed environment of paintings of children in the center of the gallery, the culmination of independent study with Colombian painter, Leonel Gongora. In 1971 she was involved in the 5 College Dada-Surrealism Festival. During the summmerof 1972 she studied art history in Bologna, Italy and also made an excursion to Paris on her 21st Birthday to see a major show of Surrealism. The following summer she lived in New York City, took classes at the Art Students' League, and became friends with Leonora Carrington. In 1974-75 she attended an experimental graduate program at the Brooklyn Museum Art School and created a new body of paintings: large grey babies based on Victorian photography.
Her first one person exhibition in New York was in 1978 and featured black and white drawings of children that dealt with the dichotomy of good and evil. The show received many good reviews as well as the admiration of George Tooker and Saul Steinberg, and was sold out to Monique Knowlton, whose gallery represented Couture in the US, and in many group exhibitions around the country. In 1980 she received a MacDowell Colony fellowship and began her 'PREDELLA' series of paintings of interiors with cut-away views inspired by the Italian Renaissance. Later that year she moved with her standard poodle, Papagano, to the East Village in NYC which was becoming an exciting & active art community.
For many years Couture had visited Mexico, enchanted by the color, the people she met, and the power of its history. In 1983 Couture made her fourth trip to Mexico City, this time to paint for several months in Coyoacan, and to have her first one-person show at Galeria Arvil, who represented her work in Latin America. In 1988 she had her second show at Galeria Arvil and aquired a small penthouse studio nearby, actually a former maid's quarters, in the historic Edificio Vizcaya .
When Couture returned to NYC in 1988 she turned her attention to illustration. She began contributing drawings to the New York Times Book Review, and Magazine, as well as painting book covers for authors such as Margaret Atwood, and Francine Prose. In 1989 she was invited to be an artist in residence at Fondation Karolyi in Vence, France. She wrote and illustrated two Children's books, THE HOUSE ON THE HILL and A WALK IN THE WOODS that were published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux in 1991 and 1993. She has continued to design and illustrate for print media, including CD covers.
In 1992 she went back to New England for the summer with her ancient poodle, looking for a place away from the city. She found an ideal studio in the cafeteria of an old school building, nicknamed 'The Buckland Ritz', and decided to stay. Couture became involved with the founding of a new community art center and school, called the Art Bank, where she organized many original events, projects and exhibitions. During this period she also pursued her interest in 3 dimensional objects and began to create TIMEpieces.
In the spring of 1996 she met sculptor William Hosie at an evening lecture on Akan Goldweights at the local art center. They exchanged studio visits. Couture was enchanted by his collection of antique toys, as well as his work. Three years later were married in their backyard, on a precipice above a ravine overlooking the Deerfield River. For their Honeymoon they went to "Las Pozas", the fantasy gardens created by Edward James in the jungles of Mexico.
Couture and Hosie are currently working and travelling independently and together, and planning new art projects .
ART IN AMERICA
"She has arrived at her excursions into the dollhouse of dreams very much on her own......
and the Mysteries pictured are almost as funny and sweet as they are disturbing.
A distinctly American imagination is at work here."
Gerrit Henry
ARTS
"Christin Couture draws aside the velvet curtain to reveal the darker side of childhood that lurks
deep in every pubescent breast........She couches these hidden urges
in the sugar coating of a Victorian daydream....."
Nina Ffrench-Frazier
NEW YORK TIMES
"In Miss Couture dollhouse world, tiny figures are seen in intimate poses, but can be glimpsed
only through curtains. There is an ominous foreboding, a sense of impending violence in these quiet
settings that compels the viewer to make a periodic check to see if all is still well."
Helena A. Harrison
OPTIMIST
"WIT, WONDER AND WOW! "Christin Couture's figurative , sensual, and detailed paintings steal the show."
Mary Kelleher
NY POST MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM
"Christin Couture paints with exquisite attention to detail. The precision in her work is such that it
resembles manuscript illumination in leaf. her surfaces are almost like enamel.... ......'her work has potent
surreal overtones. In "Soiree", for example, nude figures waltz in a land of trees, lawns, and oil lamps."
Phillip Issacson
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