Redlands muralist, Christine Curry, featured at Redlands Art Association

REDLANDS, Calif. — Artist Christine Curry has painted close to a hundred murals in and around Redlands. This month, her original oil paintings are on display in a featured show at the Redlands Art Association.

Curry’s subjects range from portraits and still lifes to buildings and scenery, painted in styles ranging from hyperrealism to impressionism, with a focus on portraying light.

“I knew I had a talent for drawing and I used to draw all the time as a kid,” said Curry, who was born in Los Angeles and raised in Redlands. Her mother is a retired art teacher. Curry wanted to be an animator while attending junior high, but that changed in high school.

“I tried acrylic painting in high school and really loved it,” she said.

At 19, she painted her first mural at The Frugal Frigate, where she worked.

“Initially with acrylic, I like how you can cover large spaces with paint brushes and drawing, and they dry quickly,” she said of the medium she uses for murals. “Murals are more interactive, it’s fun when people are walking by and asking questions.”

Besides the social aspect of painting in public spaces, she likes the physicality of it too.

About oil paintings, she said, “Oils, I really love because you can blend them and have more subtle techniques, they don’t dry as quickly.”

She was introduced to oils at Riverside Community College, where Dana Mason was one of her influential teachers.

“She encouraged us to be bold and make our marks,” Curry said.

In 2007, she graduated from Otis College of Art + Design in Los Angeles with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, where artist Peter Zokosky taught her techniques used by master painters such as Rembrandt, Da Vinci and Rubens. One of the portraits in the Redlands gallery, depicting her daughter, Aurora, is painted using Da Vinci’s technique.

“That’s one of my favorite styles,” she said.

When doing portraits, she sketches the person in front of her first, then paints from a photograph.

She likes to paint vintage artifacts in still lifes or old buildings. One of the buildings she painted was Sunny Cal Mill on Texas Street, which was torn down more than a decade ago. She took a picture of it at sunset and later painted from that.

“I grew up around antiques,” she said. “My parents collect antiques, they influenced me a lot with their vintage, antique style.”

“It seems like it had a life, a story behind it,” she added. She often chooses antique frames for her paintings because of that.

Curry is mainly inspired by light.

“The way the light shines through the trees or on someone’s face,” she said.

One series she made was of Redlands by night, painting not only the moonlight but also the glow from electric lights.

Curry primarily does commissioned mural work, both outdoors and indoors, at businesses, homes and public sites, including Kimberly Crest, San Bernardino County Museum, Don Orange, Hate Burger, Martha Green’s, Redlands High School, Valley Prep High School and Crafton Hills College.

She is also the artist behind “Hannah’s Wings” in downtown Redlands near Redlands Jewelers. Curry, then known as Christine Coates, painted the mural in memory of Hannah Ahlers, who was killed in the 2017 Route 91 Harvest festival mass shooting in Las Vegas.

“It felt really special,” she said. “It’s nice, it’s a memory of her and something people can enjoy even if they don’t know the story behind it. It kind of carries on her legacy.”

Ahlers’ family owns Redlands Jewelers.

Curry has painted with plein-air artists in Riverside and shown her work at various shows throughout Southern California. Her artwork can also be found in numerous private collections.

Curry assisted muralist Kent Twitchell in the restoration of two large Los Angeles freeway murals. She also worked with an art conservator to help restore an Alfredo Ramos Martínez fresco mural in the Coronado Library.

Curry also does signage and finds time to work on smaller paintings in her home studio. Sometimes she bartends on the side “to work with people, to do something fun,” she said.

“I’m excited to do this [show],” Curry said. “I hope people appreciate the art whether they like the technique or the image.”

Visitors can meet Curry at an open house Saturday, Sept. 12, from 1 to 4 p.m. More information about Curry’s art is available at CCpainter.com.

About the Redlands Art Association

Address: 215 E. State St., Redlands, CA 92373
Website: redlands-art.org
Social media: facebook.com/RedlandsArtAssociation and @redlandsartassociation on Instagram
Hours: Monday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.; closed Sundays
Christine Curry’s featured show runs Sept. 5-Oct. 2, 2026.