Cheri Christensen (New Mexico, b. 1961), "Bounty's Cows", oil on canvas, signed lower right

sight: 30 x 40 in., frame: 38.5 x 48.5 in.

Provenance: Property from a home in Green Valley, Arizona

Cheri Christensen studied at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and graduated from the University of Washington before undertaking three years of intensive oil-painting study with Ron Lukas, a protégé of Sergei Bongart who taught in the tradition of the Russian Impressionists. Christensen is best known for expressive, highly observed paintings of animals, informed by her familiarity with rural life and her deep respect for her subjects; her attention to anatomy, character, light, and atmosphere gives her work a distinctive emotional quality. Her first competition entry was selected for a prestigious exhibition at the Charles and Emma Frye Art Museum in Seattle, and her first painting featuring animals received the Beatrice Jackson Memorial Award for Best Traditional Landscape at the Allied Artists of America 1995 exhibition. She has since exhibited and received awards in numerous regional, national, and international shows and is a signature member of the National Oil and Acrylic Painters Society and the American Academy of Women Artists. Her work has been featured in Southwest Art, The Artist’s Magazine, In Focus / Santa Fe, and Art-Talk Magazine.