Sarah's Garden

About Christine

Art is a universal language that communicates without words. As other artists have expressed themselves throughout history, Christine Kowal also expresses what is in her heart through her paintings.
Christine Kowal studied Fine Art at Queen’s University and in Venice Italy. She has been drawing and painting all of her life.

I have always seen and understood the world a little differently. I see things when I look at them as a painting and I always have, it is almost as if what is in front of me flattens itself out for me so that I can understand it in my own way.

While at Queen’s University studying Fine Art, I lived on a hobby farm just outside of Kingston owned by Zalman Yanovsky and his wife Rose Richardson. Zalman, was a guitarist for THE LOVING SPOONFUL, the creators of such hit songs as 'Summer in the City,' 'Do You Believe in Magic' and 'Nashville Cats.'

Zalman

I had my own studio on the farm nestled in the forest and I had the animals all around me to learn about and learn from. This is where I first began to paint animals as my main subject. The farm was a magical place for me, it allowed me the freedom to do what I love which is paint and to paint what I love, animals. We had cats and dogs, peacocks, sheep, guinea fowl and chickens.

One day, a group of five hound dogs belonging to the hound rescue escaped and ended up on Rose and Zalman’s property. Zalman was able to corral them into an area but couldn’t get near them. Quietly I started talking to them and eventually all five approached me and calmed right down. Zalman was astounded. He said to me ‘I don’t know how you did that. You have a gift and you should use it.’ It was a defining moment for me and an inspiration for me to spend my life working with and helping animals and their people.

I lived at the farm for three years and the time that I spent there changed my life. Rose and Zalman loved and respected their animals and their land and Zalman’s encouragement and belief in my gift with animals, and Rose’s encouragement of my art so long ago, gave me the courage to follow my heart and do the work that I do today.

My love of life has always centered around animals and art and so I have been a student of art and the natural world all of my life. Love and respect is how I interpret the natural world and that is what my gentle training is all about. Art is the way I capture the essence of life and express it to the rest of the world.