Meet Christine Mercer-Vernon
Paintings Built on Design, Observation & Joy
Christine Mercer-Vernon is an observational painter shaped by design discipline and observation.
Her compositions are built deliberately, guided by principles honed over 30+ years in graphic design, illustration, and visual communication.
Her floral still-life work reflects the joy found in seasonal cycles, while her skull and bone portraits reinterpret natural structure through a limited palette developed for painting natural bone.
Painted from life, her florals are layered through time, composed one stem at a time throughout the blooming season. Insects, drawn in graphite, serve as environmental subtext—lightly embedded into the narrative to allude to the precarious future of pollinators. They are reminders of absence as much as existence, a visual pause to consider what we stand to lose.
Her paintings are created to be lived with—not consumed instantly. They reward slow looking, thoughtful collecting, and enduring connection, carrying a sense of everyday joy into the spaces we inhabit most.
Learn more about her process and how she uses the harmonic armature in her paintings →
Christine Mercer-Vernon grew up between Philadelphia suburbs and the mountains of Northern Pennsylvania. Her 30+ year career as a textbook illustrator, illustrator-designer, and professional graphic designer sharpened her eye for composition, structure, and visual harmony.
She works full-time from her York, Pennsylvania studio, painting flowers from her pollinator-friendly garden and exploring her signature palette for natural bone portraiture. Her work celebrates joy, meaning, and the quiet stories found in nature.
The Artist’s Journey: Christine Mercer-Vernon
“I paint from a long, lived visual practice — rooted in design, observation, and the natural world. My work is about slowing down, looking closely, and creating images meant to be lived with over time.”
