Arts
I met with Cheryl at the Louis Long Gallery at the GAPS in Reading where she had a month long Watercolor Exhibit. Cheryl said she wanted to do a show for a number of years but was only creating 2 or 3 paintings a year. She asked to have a show at the Gaps and notes you need a website and a portfolio so your work can be previewed. Just like you know a Norman Rockwell painting is a ‘Norman Rockwell’, you know these watercolor paintings are a ‘Cheryl Elmo’. Her work is very distinctive. She started painting watercolor when she was 6 or 7 years old and she just loved to see the water on the page. Cheryl says “I tried other mediums, jewelry, pottery and I always came back to watercolor… In fact the jewelry that I was making looked like watercolors, little drips and blobs”. What makes Cheryl’s watercolors so distinctive? Cheryl says “These water colors are layer upon layer upon layer of color ... They are like little puddles of color that all come together to create the illusion of what you see”. Cheryl was always taught you don’t want to paint too much because it will turn to mud. “For me … I would lay down the color and then lay down another layer of color and another … it was that depth that would excite me”. Cheryl creates about 3 paintings at a time. She doesn’t stop till there are “delicious types of flecks you want to pick off of a painting … these little dots of color” She doesn’t actually paint a face she paints spots that she blends. Cheryl says, “I am painting little puddles of color, I am feeding the color to these little puddles of water. It’s not totally controlled … It’s that surprise that happens at the end. I really don’t know what these are going to look like at the end”. When asked who taught her to paint in this manner Cheryl says “I don’t know that anybody can teach you your style … it’s an evolution over time”. She encourages young artists, “You need to follow your passion, the harder you work you will get there. You got to be committed”. She recalls wonderful teachers at Millersville University where she received her art degree. “Instead of painting the figures I was painting faces through the figures”. She counts teachers and other painters among her influencers. She finds inspiration in everyday moments. Cheryl says “I want to make viewer see something they normally would walk away from. I want to capture those moments so people appreciate that beauty”. She captures things you see but don’t really notice. What else does Cheryl share that most folks don’t know? Listen and find out!