Hi, I’m Christine.

A second chapter

For close to 30 years, my hands were my livelihood — working as a Registered Massage Therapist, I learned to read the subtleties of the human body through touch and observation. When I retired in 2022, I wasn’t sure what would come next. I just knew I finally had the space to follow my curiosity.

A discovery, not a return

Drawing wasn’t something I came back to — it was something I discovered. In 2024 I picked up a pencil and started sketching wildlife. Then pets. Then I realized something surprising: the same focus I’d spent decades developing as a therapist — the ability to truly see — translated directly onto paper. Every muscle, every shadow, every quiet expression.

My dog Louie was my first real subject. He’s the reason this all started — and the reason I keep going.

What drives me

Every family sees something unique in their pet — a look, a tilt, a personality that no one else quite captures. That’s what I try to put on paper. Not just what an animal looks like, but what it feels like to love them. I work slowly, one portrait at a time, because that’s how the details come through.

The materials

• Pencils. Graphite, in a range of grades — soft enough for the dark of a black coat, hard enough for a single whisker.
• Paper. 9 in. × 12 in. acid-free heavy weight paper, so the portrait lasts.
• Time. About two weeks for most portraits. Longer for the detailed ones.

Where I work

I work from home in Guelph, Ontario — a quiet desk, good lamp, a stack of reference photos, and Louie usually nearby.