CC ART GALLERY

Cristina Vendelsen was born in 1954 in Bucharest, Romania, into a family dedicated to art and culture. Her father painted and photographed, and his brother painted and created calligraphy for several ornate Bibles in Romanian monasteries. Cristina has lived in Norway since 1995, together with her husband and two daughters. In the fall of 2017, she and her husband settled in Skogbygda, in Nes municipality, Akershus. One of their daughters also lives there with her family.

Cristina studied civil engineering, specializing in architecture/building sciences, at the Bauhaus University in Weimar, Germany. Cristina loved drawing and painting from a young age; her father was a good role model and guided her frequently. Her great passion is painting, preferably with acrylics but also with oils. Initially, she mostly used watercolor, and some of her early watercolor works received attention. Cristina also created many drawings in ink and watercolor. Recently, she has returned to this technique.

Cristina is inspired by study stays in Provence, by the people around her, and by the beautiful Norwegian nature. Cats are her favorite animals—Cristina has two cats, and she has created a series of 12 cat drawings that will be the subject of an exhibition in June. Cristina has participated in numerous painting courses, including with Annhild Brit Gustavsen, university lecturer Marina Stan, Svetlana Rezvaya, and the Icelandic painter Karl Austan Vernhardsson. She completed an extended program at Nydalen Art School in Oslo and attended a six-month course with the American artist Pamela Caughey. Cristina is inspired by people, and in 2021 she took a portrait course with Jan Ove Tuve, a former student of Nerdrum. She constantly works on developing her own style, simplifying her expression, and perfecting her technique.