County fair gives new life to 30-year-old painting
By Angela Randazzo Special to the Acorn

THEIR FAIR LADY- Ojai resident Mary Christie and family members, daughter Cathie Shultz, granddaughter Michelle Woods, great-grandson Treyton and great-granddaughter Taylor, sit next to a painting Christie created in 1979. The painting was chosen for the 2007 Ventura County Fair poster.

In 1979, after Ojai resident Mary Christie entered one of her oil paintings in an art contest at the Ventura County Fair, she was honored with the Director's Choice Award.

Little did she know that nearly 30 years later that very same painting- a depiction of her grandparents attending a fair in Kansas- would again draw the interest of event organizers, only this time as the artwork for the 2007 Ventura County Fair poster.

This year's event opened on Wednesday and continues through Sunday, Aug. 12 at the fairgrounds at Seaside Park in Ventura.

Christie, now 90, never dreamed her old painting would put her in the public eye later in life, according to Simi Valley resident Bob Shultz, the artist's son-in-law.

2007 fair poster

"Mary is thrilled and flattered to have her painting represent the fair," Shultz said.

Christie's oil painting depicts an old man and woman sitting and smiling in the foreground of a bustling fair scene, complete with Ferris wheel and carnival games. He's holding his straw boater, she a bag of popcorn.

"My grandparents loved to go to the state fair in Topeka," Christie said.

Bob Shultz and his wife, Cathie, Mary's daughter, are longtime Simi Valley residents. Both beamed with pride over their mother's latest artistic achievement.

Cathie, director of a private preschool here in town, has many of her mother's pieces in her home.

"She's the kindness person you ever want to meet and has a great sense of humor," Cathie said. "She sees humor in the human condition and relates that in her artwork."

Christie and her painting parted ways in 1979 after Alma L. Wood, then Ventura County Fair board president, purchased the work on behalf of the board. For the next 28 years, the painting hung in the fair director's office and, over time, attracted the admiration of many visitors and staff members.

"Everyone loved the painting when they saw it in the office," said James Lockwood, the fair's publicity director. "The CEO of the fairgrounds, (Barbara Boester-Quaid), always thought it would make a great poster."

With this year's theme "An Old Fashioned Fair," the painting of an old-fashioned couple enjoying a fair seemed to be a perfect match.

Still, finding the artist to get her permission to use the piece for the fair poster after almost three decades had passed could have posed a problem. Fortunately, when the painting was removed from the wall, the original fair entry tag was still attached to the back with Christie's name and address.

Since 1978 Christie's lived in Ojai, where she flourished as an artist, showing her work in galleries and teaching art classes. Recent arthritis prevents her from sculpting but she still takes up the paintbrush.

Now that she's homebound, Christie said, painting is wonderful therapy for her.

Christie started creating art as a girl after her father bought her a box of pastels. When her parents moved to Minnesota, she stayed with her grandparents in Kansas to finish high school.

"I went to a wonderful public high school that had a wonderful art dept in Kansas," she said. "It was an unusual school so I insisted on staying with (my grandparents) when my family moved up to Minneapolis."

After graduation, Christie continued studying at prestigious art institutes in Minneapolis, Philadelphia and Chicago. She was married for 43 years before parting from her minister husband.

In addition to Cathie Shultz, the artist has three other children, Rick Christie of Palm Springs, Candi Howard of Running Springs and Ron Christie in the Ontario area. She has six grandchildren and four greatgrandchildren.

On a recent trip to the beach with Cathie and Bob, Christie said she was filing away in her brain all the glorious images for future paintings.

"I've worked in all media. I particularly like the richness of oil painting, so most of my later work is in oil," Christie said. "I love to do people- their human frailties and also their beauty."