By Melissa Pingeton

For Christine Montecalvo, the winter is her favorite time of year to paint.

“When it gets cold out it’s going to be a real awesome sunset,” explains the 28-year-old Worcester resident.  “The yellowish sun… the coldness of the air reflecting colors,” Montecalvo continues.  “Winter is definitely a season for painters.”

Montecalvo has been an artist her whole life, graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and a minor in Illustration and Graphic Design from the Art Institute of Boston in 2002.  Even though she did not study abroad, she spent three weeks in Europe during 2000, visiting friends who were.  Seeing masterpieces such as David, the Sistine Chapel and St. Petersburg were the “…highlight of my life, it just kicked it up a notch,” she recalls.

Throughout her career as an artist, she has explored an array of media ~ airbrush, oil and acrylic paints, and even embroidery.  She admires the pre-Raphaelite period of art, describing it as “…more whimsical, softer,” a mix of bright and dark colors with the artists “…bringing them forth from the back.”

A favorite pre-Raphaelite artist is John William Waterhouse, who was most famous for his paintings of female characters from mythology and literature.  “Oh my God, I just love his stuff,” Montecalvo says with a smile.

Someone else Montecalvo sees a mentor is Worcester Artist Group (WAG) president Bryan Davagian.  “I look up to him as another artist,” she explains, adding that he “…sees the same concept” in art as she does.

Even though Montecalvo hasn’t done airbrushing in a while, the technique seems to be in a lot of her work.  She explains:  “I always did shading,” even with coloring with crayons as a child.  Through acrylic and oil paints, Montecalvo finds the finished result “…looks like airbrush quality.”

Airbrushing has even launched Montecalvo into the world of makeup; she started working for a modeling agency and more recently has begun freelancing for the cosmetics line Benefit.  “I love makeup; I love [Benefit’s] line,” she explains. “Every face is different; you see your inner-side…that’s what I portray.”

Montecalvo is quick to point out the similarities between applying makeup and airbrushing.  “Blending on the face ~ always the blending quality of makeup,” says Montecalvo.  “There are so many different concepts; it’s fun.”
Recently she has been focusing less on airbrushing and more on oil and acrylic paints.  “I’m just always challenging myself,” she explains.  According to Montecalvo, these paints pose the challenge of “…creating layers ~ the opposite of what I did [with airbrushing].”

“It’s just slowing me down,” she continues, adding that those paints keep her paying attention to the “…little things inside the painting” such as the minute details on a piece of fruit.  Using these types of paints also makes her pieces pop.  Not only does Montecalvo want her piece to grab someone’s attention, she wants it to make someone “…stop and just look at it.”

Montecalvo has been a member of the WAG since 2002.  “Every artist has to be around [his or her] own people,” she says.  After a car accident in 2003 which left her with a broken femur ~ “I’m lucky to be alive,” she adds ~ she says it was WAG that helped her return to her art.  “It was so good to have that art community to go to…it gave me that confidence,” she recalls.  That confidence paid off as she started creating more art ~ something that her family and friends noticed.

Currently Montecalvo works for the embroidery company Identity in Leominster.  She utilizes her background in graphic design, creating and then digitizing logos for the Massachusetts State Police onto computers.

“The machine is your canvas in a different-like way, but in a refreshing-like way,” she explains.

In March 2008, Montecalvo will participate in ZaZa Ink’s Massachusetts Tattoo and Art Festival at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Worcester.  There, she will be selling new pieces of art as well as doing body art.

In the meantime, she will continue to create art, “…going bigger and better” with her pieces.  “Small is too confining for me… big, I can see everything,” she says.

And it’s a safe bet that everyone will be seeing a lot more of Christine Montecalvo.

To check out more of Christine’s work, head to www.bodyasacanvas.4t.com.