CHERYL ENGLISH (1945-2018)
Cheryl English (1945-2018)
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Colorado-based painter, Cheryl English, depicts in his paintings the simple beauty found in daily life. Known for her mastery of chiaroscuro, she creates each piece to speak to the true focus of English’s inspiration—the harmony existing between light and shadow. Her subject matter ranging from a street-side fruit stand in Mexico to sun filled windows, creates a particular mood, through which the viewer is introduced to charming scenarios that are wrapped in depth and texture, and are entirely about paint. This is the primary force of English’s painting—the astonishing manipulation of her medium. She strives to maintain a feeling of spontaneity by completing each painting in one sitting—the alla prima method. She says of using this method, “Immediacy is important. Not only because it is often the nature of people, but for me it is the most instinctive way to paint.”
English was born in 1957 in Omaha, Nebraska and raised in a rural community near Colorado Springs. Born into a family of musicians, Cheryl English is an accomplished pianist and composer, and she has described the similarity of energy in music and painting: rhythm, movement, balance as integral to the simplicity she strives to achieve in each of her canvases. English's formal art training was completed at Denver's Rocky Mountain School of Art in 1979 where she later taught until the mid 1980's.
She has exhibited at the Allied Artists of America winning the Gold Medal of Honor; the National Academy of Design; the Artists of America-Denver Rotary Club; NAWA 21st Annual Exhibition; Arts for the Parks; the Colorado Governor's Invitational - Loveland Museum; the A.R. Mitchell Memorial Museum of Western Art; The Knickerbocker 42nd Annual Exhibition; the Oil Painters of America and won both the Certificate of Merit and the Joseph Hartley Memorial Award at two Salmagundi Club Exhibitions.
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