Christine Relton & Tom Marine

Welcome to COLOURBOX - home of RELTON MARINE

Christine Relton and Tom Marine have been painting together for 15 years and have become widely known for their original style.

They also run the gallery COLOURBOX, established 1996, representing living contemporary artists from across the UK working in wall based works: painting, print making and collage. Colourbox exhibits regularly at Art Fairs throughout the UK; primarily the AAF London Battersea Spring and Hampstead Fairs and AAF Bristol Fair. Last year they added AAF Singapore and this year will have a stand at the Grand Designs Live Fair in London in May. Tom and Christine also collaborate regularly with Byard Art (Cambridge) to participate in AAF fairs in New York, Brussels and Milan and are currently showing work with them at the London Art Fair at the Design Centre in Islington, London.

Christine was trained at Leeds and Lancaster and Tom at Byam Shaw and Chelsea School of Art and both have been involved in painting and printmaking for over 30 years.

When not showing through COLOURBOX at art fairs, they show and sell extensively with galleries throughout the UK, Europe and the USA and have completed many commissions for both private and corporate buyers. They work from a studio in their garden overlooking Wharfedale in West Yorkshire and welcome visits to see them there.

UPCOMING EVENTS

London Art Fair, Islington with Byard Art, January 2012

AAF Battersea, London March 2012

Grand Designs Live, London, May 2012

AAF Bristol, May 2012

RECENT EVENTS

AAF Singapore, November 2011

AAF Hampstead, London November 2011

Aquisition of 5 paintings for Public Art Collection, House of Lords, July 2011

Statement On Work

We work together on the same canvas. The paintings are built up in layers and are a representation of a real place or event, based on somewhere we've been or something that happened - travel features a lot as the colours and images are stronger and more memorable. Over the last few years we’ve also developed an interest in painting landscapes of the UK, especially the Yorkshire Dales near where we live.

We'll decide what we want to paint in terms of where and what and discuss rough ideas and colours. Under painting has become more and more important to give depth and texture and this is primarily Tom's job. He stretches and primes all our canvases and spends hours getting the surface and colours looking good. Christine has no patience with this but is more interested in the overall composition. She works very fast and Tom's other job is to tell her when to leave the painting alone and give it room to breathe. As a result, we don't often paint at the same time but will get together to decide how to finish the painting and discuss what's working and what isn't and make changes. At this stage it's not unusual to change the composition and repaint whole areas again.

This amount of over painting and adjustment is the good thing about working together as it stops you from getting too stale or too precious about the work. We always use acrylic paint for the same reason - it dries fast and allows a lot of manipulation and re-painting. The most successful pieces end up as more an amalgamation of imagery rather than one image of a specific place.

We consider it finished when the balance and composition feel right, the colour works and the result is fresh and full of energy. We want the viewer to feel uplifted and for our enjoyment of the painting process to come through.