Passions, Journeys and Imaginings

Christine Upton

Pivot Gallery, Belconnen Arts Centre

Opening: 6pm Friday 16 October 2026

Exhibition: 16 October – 29 November 2026

Weekly walks in the bush, the constant watching of people and birds, the love of carving, and a lifetime as an artist have combined to create the artworks in this exhibition. Passions, Journeys and Imaginings is a survey of the 130 artworks that have been created in the last 10 years.

Christine’s passions include native birds and flowers, patterns, circles and colours. Her journeys include both the physical and the emotional responses to her surrounds. There is always something that stimulates Christine’s imagination including: her need to make social comments, her need to pay homage to nature, and her need to play.

Christine uses birds to tell stories and abstract blossoms and circles to explore the idea of memories. Her latest work involves the depiction of memories and their association with blossoms that fade and disappear over time. This concept has been evolving since 2016 when she first started playing with the idea. It has involved responses to teenage years with a mother with memory loss, to losing a soul mate, and to just the understanding of memory itself.

“All of my work involves exploration and play as without these, for me, art would simply become a boring production line that creates visual images.”

About the Artist

Christine Upton is a multidisciplinary artist and owner of the Wacky Bird Gallery in Corowa, NSW.

Recognised as a master printmaker, her strikingly detailed artworks are created from hand-carved vinyl blocks and incorporate layers of intricate pattern and colour. Christine’s larger works are foot printed.

The Carved Line, a retrospective of her relief block artwork from 1972–2015 was held at Belconnen Art Centre in 2015. Since then, Christine has had 8 solo and 2 focus exhibitions throughout NSW and Victoria.

Christine grew up on a farm near Parkes NSW, spending hours watching and wandering through fields of wheat, flocks of sheep and herds of cattle. These early experiences of patterns, shapes and colours within the environment of rural Australia have profoundly influenced her artwork.

w: wackybirdgallery.com.au

f: Wacky.Bird.Gallery

i: @wackybirdgallery