Christian Quintin

Christian Quintin (born September 3, 1957) is a French-born surrealistic painter who lives in Northern California. Born on the coast of Brittany, Quintin attended the Beaux Arts Academy in Paris. He moved to the United States in 1981. He is known for his use of vivid colors and sensual images, fantastical landscapes and intricate pen-and-inks.
Life and career
Quintin came to San Francisco when he was 24. He first lived in the City, then in Chicago and Albuquerque, he now lives in Northern California. He has painted murals for the Davis Food Co-op (visible from the check-out stands) and the California Youth Authority, and the city of Ione. He has taught art classes in many prisons. Quintin was influenced by the Surrealist movement, which began in France as a tiny group in the bleak early years of World War I (1914-18). By the 1920s, the movement had attracted both poets and visual artists from several European countries. Its followers were intrigued by the insights of Freud — and other psychologists — into the workings of the unconscious mind, but also by the possibilities of an art devoted to imagination and experimentation. Their most famous adherents included René Magritte and Salvador Dalí. “M.C. Esher's influence seems most obvious in Quintin's black-and-white pen drawings." (Davis Enterprise, 8/16/07)
Quintin is a prolific artist who brings a classical and romantic approach to his work. He spends two to five months on each of his pieces. “His natural universe is a place of ecstasy, infinite wonder and exquisite sensibility, intensely felt, like the ethereal poetry of Rilke and Rumi,” wrote Northern California journalist Elisabeth Sherwin.
Work
Quintin’s work has been exhibited in many solo and group shows, in galleries and museums such as the Vorpal Gallery in San Francisco and New York and the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento. He has also been the recipient of numerous public and private commissions - both paintings and murals, including paintings for the lobby of Mercy Hospital in Folsom, Ca. and Mesa State College in Grand Junction, Co.

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