Christian Small lived and painted in West Linton for over 60 years. Her work was of remarkable quality and range in many different media. Her choice of subjects was wonderfully imaginative: pears on a window sash, an armchair with slippers, her paint box – all so evocative of her life. Her landscapes were drawn from around the village, their colour and draftsmanship brilliantly capturing the countryside she loved: wind-bent trees, pale green grasses and the rolling Pentland Hills.
Woven in and out of the paintings are poems by Gerda Stevenson, and Christian’s thoughts in prose as imagined with poignant eloquence by her daughter Jenny Alldridge – an unusual blend of word and image telling the unique story of a prolific and gifted artist