"First Ones" is a very special painting. Although it has the same great composition and wine country romance we expect from all of Christensen's paintings, it is most notably outstanding as Christensen’s first professional hyper realistic oil painting! Extremely rich in color and concept, it features premium Napa Valley Wines, Italian pottery, summer cherries, and luscious Asian pears, still hanging on their branches. The use of oil in this painting marks the first painting by Christensen since his high school years. The inspiration came one warm early summer morning in ’08 when he decided it would be a nice diversion to use oils to complete this composition. The detail in the painting is truly remarkable from the serrated leaves of the fruit tree to the glint of the sun on the cheese knife! Painting glass is also a Christensen hallmark which he achieves here with oil, a testament to his artistic genius, and ability to change mediums at will. “First Ones”, is likely to become a prized painting among Christensen collectors, after all, we never know when we might see one again!