Signs Of Hay

Christina Wright Signs: and 30 years later: Christina (Watson) Signs and Decorative Art

From an early age, I enjoyed drawing and lettering. At school I excelled in art, often having my work on the walls and gaining A grade at G C E.

I went to Reigate School of Art and Design at the age of 16, after the foundation year (where we studied Calligraphy, graphics and Etching which I really liked), I went on to do 3 years in Interior and Three Dimensional Design and Display, this included designing Logos for companies, whole Corporate Identities and Exhibition design which all turned out to be very useful.

At the age of 20, I married and had a son, we moved to Hay on Wye when he was 13 months, we lived in a flat above the Hay Galleries in High Town. My friend worked for Richard Booth who owned many bookshops at that point. He needed signs writing and that was the beginning of my sign writing career. We moved around the area and finally bought a little house just outside Hay where I had three more children, but continued to get a steady flow of work which we needed. There didn’t seem to be anyone else doing this work.

I went on to train in Narrow boat painting and Gipsy Vardos all of which was very gratifying work, I decorated quite a few boats on the Brecon Canal as well as the Oxford Canal. Gipsy Vardos for a man who was restoring them locally and for a gipsy lady in Prestatyn as well as the occasional private owner, including a Showman’s Wagon which was bought by Harry Belafonte and was exported to America. At the same time there were always shops and businesses that wanted work done both locally and other destinations including two hotels in Cornwall and more local towns and villages. There was a lady who lived locally and owned a prestigious company called Watts (1848) who had premises in the Chelsea Design Centre and Paris, I have also done work in Switzerland and America.

After the breakdown of marriage, I had a studio in Belmont Road, Hay on Wye and in the 1990s built a studio in the garden. I still use that studio and have retrained in Sacred Painting (Iconography) with Aidan Hart, I completed a three year course and gained a diploma from the Kings Trust For Traditional Arts. I have been practising Iconography alongside Sign Writing for 14 years. I remarried in 2010.