On Mother’s Day this year, in the Spreckels Reading Room of the Coronado Public Library, a group of mothers — and perhaps their sons, daughters, or anyone else drawn in by curiosity — are invited to sit for a portrait from 2 to 4 p.m.
But these will be no ordinary portraits.
The artist will not look at the paper. She may not even look at her hand.
And the resulting image might resemble the subject about as closely as a Picasso resembles a passport photo.
The live portrait drawing session — billed as “Quick Draw Contour Portraits” — features two artists and two styles.
Tina Christiansen, architect by trade and artist by calling, will draw on 11×14 illustration boards using a Sharpie in permanent ink.
Her portraits will be loose, unpredictable and entirely blind.
Meanwhile, fellow artist Nancy Plank, a classically-trained painter with roots in figure drawing and oil realism, will do a variation: cross-contour sketches where she’s allowed to peek at the page.
“Her portraits actually look like the person,” Christiansen said with a laugh. “Mine… not so much.”
Mothers can enter their names into a hat for the chance to be selected as a portrait subject during the event.
The portrait drawing session is a part of this year’s annual art show curated by the Coronado Art Association. This year’s theme: The Art of Abstraction.
Christiansen said her live drawing event — a blend of demonstration, performance and community icebreaker — aims not just to exhibit artwork, but to explore what it means to see.
“Blind cross-contour drawing,” she explained, “is about training your eye to be your pencil. I’m looking at your face — but I’m not looking at my hand. Or the paper.”
The result is often delightfully distorted.
“Your nose may end up on the side. One eye might be higher than the other.” But that, she insists, is part of the point. “Art isn’t just about representing. It’s about perceiving. And playing.”
The May 11 event continues a tradition that dates back to 1947, when a group of Coronado artists first banded together to share their work with the public.
Christiansen said their spirit of grassroots creativity still defines the group today, many who continue to display their work on the first and third Sunday of each month at Spreckels Park.
Christiansen herself has helped reimagine what an art show can be. A few years ago, she looked at the four walls of the Spreckels Room — crowned by the names of philosophers and adorned with old-world woodwork — and saw a book.
That first themed show became The Coronado Storybook, each wall a page, each painting a chapter in the life of the island.
This year, The Art of Abstraction explores visual ambiguity and emotional expression, featuring works that stretch across genre and technique.
“I range from realism to abstraction myself,” she said. “This is a genre that people often don’t understand — or think they don’t. But we wanted to create an exhibit that invites people in, that engages them. Not just something you glance at over a glass of sparkling water.”
But Christiansen said the focus is not about accuracy, but vulnerability – for both the sitter and the artist.
“It’s kind of brave to be drawn like that in front of a room full of people,” she explained. “And it’s brave for the artist, too, to let go of control. You’re watching your mind try to connect what you see with what you do — and letting it be a little wild.”
Ultimately, this is what abstraction offers: a loosening of the strictures of realism, and an invitation to imagine more, she said
“If they laugh,” Christiansen said, “if they take the portrait home and pin it to the fridge — or throw it away — that’s okay. Either way, they’ve seen something differently. And that’s what art should do.”
The event, sponsored by the Coronado Public Library, is free and open to the public.
