Bio and Artist's Statement

Cheryl’s love of art began in early childhood. She could sit for hours, happily drawing, painting and making greeting cards. 

At Shoreline Community College, Cheryl studied drawing, 2-dimensional design and art history. In 1993 she discovered pastelist Doug Dawson’s book, Capturing Light and Color with Pastel, and began experimenting with pastels. Since then, she has worked almost exclusively in pastels and has studied with several notable pastelists including Dorisjean Colvin, PSA, Susan Ogilvie, PSA, Clark Elster, NPS-DP, Ned Mueller, NPS-DP, Teresa Saia and Janet Hamilton. She also visits museums, galleries and artists’ web sites, and reads art books and magazines to study the work of other artists, past and present.

A signature member of the Northwest Pastel Society and member of ArtistsConnect (of Edmonds, WA.), Cheryl is represented by Kaewyn Gallery in Bothell, Anabel’s Framing and Gallery in Everett and Autumn’s Framing and Gallery in Edmonds. Her paintings are in many private collections in the United States and the Philippines. 

ARTIST’S STATEMENT 

For all of my life I have been blessed to live in the beautiful greater Seattle area of Washington state. Each season holds its own beauty, and as an artist I find much inspiring subject matter near my home or wherever I may travel in Washington and beyond. 

Painting is one of the greatest joys of my life and I endeavor to do so as best I can with the abilities that God has given me. Through my paintings, I hope to convey a sense of peace or joy to viewers or evoke a special memory. I like rich, saturated color and dramatic or unusual lighting, and most of my paintings contain both elements. I paint what I love or what moves me at the moment.

As a dry medium, pastels allow me the freedom and immediacy to capture a motif without the need to mix paint. Applied to one of the many superb pastel papers currently available, pastels make painting a joyous experience. Each piece is essentially an experiment on some level, and can turn out differently than I imagined, surprising me! The process is ever changing, and keeps me intrigued, growing and motivated to continually exceed my grasp.