SPRING 2019

Summer Approaching

I'm feeling like such a slacker, having ignored this blog for nearly a year. Winter came  equipped with a sub zero agenda for a while. This meant that melting snow, then rain then more snow, became ice, it was a layered lasagna of winter precip making the driveways somewhat  treacherous.  Not just for a few days, but for an entire season, we never saw the actual surface of our driveway until sometime in early April. 

I am writing this on May 18th, and while there is no snow, and I was brazen enough to take the snow shovel into the barn last week, I  wore my winter parka today to walk the dog. My parka is a Lands End piece weather rated to be effective up to - 30  degrees F. It felt good today with a wind blowing in across the lake from Michigan and rain  coming in sideways at times. Yet  somewhere there is a gallery opening, an artist frantic to frame a piece for the Hardy Gallery Salon  due next week, in time for the BIG Weekend, Memorial Day weekend when the county falls under the spell of orgiastic display of paintings, sculpture and who knows what other surprises await. 

I didn't work a lot this winter but I did work and have a few pieces I will probably submit to the public eye. I have several pieces framed and one painting nearly dry enough to mount into a floater frame just in time to go to the Hardy. I  also plan to participate in the Hardy Collection Invitational in July, and in September there is a one day event put on by the Womens Fund of Door County, called the ARTRAGEOUS Sale  which fills a barn in northern Door with eager bargain hunters hoping to get the art work of their dreams. Last year I submitted a painting of a monarch butterfly. This year it might be a painting of my cat.

June 13 2019
Well, what can I say. I took a deep breath and submitted my painting AFTERNOON DISTRACTIONS,  a mixed media piece, mostly oil, which I came so close to ditching, but didn’t. This piece got in the juried show, and yesterday I learned I received first prize!! GOBSMACKED was the term I used to describe my dismay and joy. I kept checking the email to be assured I read it correctly. I am honored and really feel weird. I have never won this big of a prize before.

September Sunday

GREEN HEART

acrylic and oil on canvas

18"x18"

by Cheryl Stidwell Parker

for

Miller Art Museum ABSTRACT THOUGHTS 

ABSTRACT THOUGHTS opened at the Miller Art Museum yesterday with a reception for artists, friends and the general public. I am honored to be included in this invitational.   It was a healthy mix of area as well as statewide selection of artists represented in this exhibit. It was also a good chance to see people I hadn't seen all summer.  There were several strong pieces that pulled me in with an immediacy and only a few that I walked by with out a second glance.  Over all it was a thought provoking and very professional presentation of work.  The next show up is the Miller annual juried show which I  entered fairly often over the years,  but  last year I held off on this and I am not entering this year either. I will jump back into the ring in 2019 but feel ok for now with my sabbatical from juried shows.


The 2 pieces I entered in the Hardy Collection Invitational brought interest to Chez Cheryl Artspace. while I was at the Hardy one afternoon during that show, I met a couple from Glenn Ellyn Ill. who liked the painting I had up for silent auction, they were the third party to bid on the piece, I don't know who ended up with it. But that couple ended up visiting my studio one afternoon and ended up buying a small floral still life. I was happy and so were they.

Then I left for Iowa and a week with extended family.  When I returned I jumped back into the studio, and had started four paintings by the end of the first week back. Plein air painting one afternoon with friends Liz M, Rick R. and Lynne G.  for several hours,  at a break Liz left to return with a tomato pie Rick had made, we had a tail gate party to top off the afternoon,  and I was certain that things don't get much better than that.

But now the days are getting shorter, leaves are starting to brighten red and orange around the farm house, and soon our seasonal friends will be on the road to destinations south.

My thoughts are swirling around the next portrait prize party in 2019,  new possibilities of the next painting, the next collage, the next idea.

9th Annual Door Prize for Portraiture at Chez Cheryl Artspace

July 6 2018

Has it been a year? I have paid little attention to this blog but feel compelled to document the most recent Door Prize for Portraiture.  This is our 9th year, and the interest  continues with gusto. The opening party for artists and their friends was well attended, we had just enough food, and people cheered each other when winners were announced. This community is supportive and truly celebrate each other at many levels, win or loose.
I have managed my medical issues for a year now, no changes in MRI, so no change means no drama.  I think it was shocking enough to say goodbye to Julia Bresnahan, who passed away suddenly, it seems, while in Arizona.


We  knew she had health issues but thought most of the bad stuff had been beat. Instead she succumbed to invading cancer and went to hospice and soon after, she was gone. She had left her portrait of grand nephew Marshall in her place in Baileys Harbor, and it was  my pleasure to include it in the show, I was glad to hear from her niece that it was the families wish to have it displayed.  This year’s Honorable Mention went to Michael Nitsch, Karin Overbeck and Hermke Timm, all diverse and deserving. Best in Show went to Suzanne Rose, at last, I think she felt like a bridesmaid, never a bride, but this year’s image of daughter Delilah was so powerful, practically jumping off the wall. Her chronicle of her daughter’s growth each year  offers a study not only, of the Portrait image, but the complexities of a young girl facing a broadening world.


Chez cheryl artspace continues to offer me a quiet spot, the screened in front porch a temple for listening to the wind in maple and arbor vita and countless birds through the day, concluding with the whip poor will at dusk.

Right now my own  paintings are stored in closets. In late July two will go to the Hardy Gallery for Collection Invitational Fundraiser, and in September I have one piece headed to the Miller Art Museum in Sturgeon Bay for ABSTRACT THOUGHTS, my piece is inspired by the barn and trees and offers escape from the nightly news, in colors and forms that simplify and play with the traditional landscape themes that dominate the DoorCounty.

SUMSUM Summertime

Summertime

Colleen Mccarty's Self Portrait with Chicken

Door Prize for Portraits 2017

I am in the midst of preparations for the 8th Annual Door Prize for Portraiture, which is being held back at the artspace, and will feature 28 artists working in all variety of media. Last year the show was at the Miller Art Museum,  in Sturgeon Bay,  and was twice as big. Wanting to keep the ball rolling, I decided to offer it again and have a number of new faces, but all are full time  door county residents. Shan Bryan-Hanson is the juror.

I entered the Hardy Wall to Wall Salon exhibit in Ephraim,
which went up over Memorial Day weekend, and was up two weeks, then juried, and again I was eliminated so threw a party for all those brave souls who entered and were also eliminated. It was sort of a dress rehearsal for the Portrait Prize show, we had some nice food, and the art looked good hung in a setting that was more conducive to presentation. On an up note, I have a buyer for my painting, many felt that it should have been included in the show. Frankly, after seeing all the entries I was not surprised I was not selected. The showing this year was strong, with 170 artists, and only 70 were juried in to the  final exhibition.

Its been quite a long gap between entries in this blog, partly because in January my dog Daisy  died, and shortly after that I developed some horrid symptoms, facial nerve pain and it never went away. I have since been on increased medication, an anti convulsive, which makes me tired, and slightly high at first. As I adjust to it I have facial nerve pain return, and then have to increase the dose. This has made my hands shake, and while the pain is gone,  in the last few days, I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop, and the source of the problem has not, and an MRI in mid March revealed a meningioma, or tumor, which was coming out of the meninges which lines the brain, and its pressing on the trigeminal nerve, it is also quite close to the brain stem. I am now facing either radiation or surgery and at least another year of medication. It is a struggle to remain up beat. Painting has helped me get through the  sadness over loosing my dog and offers some distraction from the facial nerve pain.

Here is a shot of Daisy mae in the studio taken several years ago. She went with me most days and seemed pretty content to the point of falling asleep while I painted.

Enter Autumn

 Deep into October

Its been raining off and on all day, the leaves are falling with the rain drops, and the skies are a mass of gray. The colors of autumn never cease to bring one to pause and just stare. The other day i longed for a camera, it was brilliant light that stopped me in my tracks by the back door of the farm house, light shining on the red geraniums, the enamel water bins, and pumpkin, and the three remaining chickens in my diminishing flock who had chosen that very moment to squat and  wallow into the sunny warmth of the cement slab at the back door. It was a moment I spent etching it into my brain.



After  hosting a solo exhibit of work by artist Kristi Roenning over Labor Day weekend, and several weekends of house guests at the farm, I have moved  my easels back to their  spot and rolled out the paint cart, suddenly I realize I am out of canvas.  I managed to do two small studies,  in August, holly hocks that were begging to be painted,  inspired a larger piece as shown below.  I also pursued some printmaking activity in August, signing up for a workshop with artist Donna Brown in her printmaking studio just a few miles  down the road. One of the pleasures of living in Door County is the proximity to so many talented people.  the resulting mono prints included several versions of magpies and a moody tree study, as well as a formal abstraction  in multi colors. Play at its best. And since I am currently  short of canvas, I started to coat heavy smooth watercolor paper with gesso, and have  played around with waterbased oil on paper taped to masonite boards. It seems to work.

High Plateau Hollyhocks, September 2016 water based oil on canvas

18"x18" 

This piece made the cut recently in the Annual Juried Five County Exhibition at the Miller Art Museum, Sturgeon Bay Wisconsin.

This annual exhibition opens November 5 with a public reception  3:30-5pm.

portraits and salon de Refusé

Seventh Annual Door Prize for Portraiture
Miller Art Museum, Sturgeon Bay WI
June 4- July 25 2016

Some may have noticed, there are no portraits at Chez Cheryl Artspace this summer.  Instead, the Miller Art Museum has graciously hosted this exhibit which has doubled in size this year. Opening In early June with a public reception, the exhibit runs through July 25. I must admit great pride in seeing this exhibit grow and to such an exquisite level of talent and expression. The opening reception was wall to wall, food and drink ran out before the reception was over. My face hurt from smiling.

The following week I presented my talk  to the Miller Art Museum volunteers and general public, Speed Reading the Portrait;a brief history, which went well thanks to Michael Nitsch and Elizabeth Meissner Gigstead for their help with my images I requested for the talk.  I had spent most of the winter months reading and  compiling information to make my talk thorough yet not bogged down with too much linear thinking. My audience laughed when they should and I felt confident that no one fell asleep during my hour long  excursion through art history.

 I stopped back at the Miller the other day and attendance seemed to be very good that day, the count was at 56 and that was noon. More people in one Saturday than I would have had in a week at chez Cheryl.   Best in show award went to Craig Blietz for his self portrait, with two cats, honorable mentions included Sharon Delvoye, Shelby Keefe and Bonita Budysch. I felt strong pieces included a painting by Buttons Wolst, also a self portrait by Emmet John's, and last but not least, an incredible portrait of her granddaughter, by Jan Comstock.

Next year the show will go back to the farmhouse studio at chez Cheryl, and may introduce some new people, wih possible sabbaticals for a few others who have been regulars since its inception. It's fun to stir the pot now and then.

 I struggled to make a portrait this year, working on a tiny ampersand clay board, with gouache, over and over again, until I was sick of it.  Learning to handle gouache, and working in such a small  format, I found the combination of those elements too challenging but learned a bit of handling a media that tends to dry quickly.  At the 11th hour I went back to larger format, oil paint and a bigger brush and the self portrait Touch of Grey/ The Green Scarf evolved in a matter of two days. This painting evolved with the joy of the paint, and brush strokes were allowed to take over the  image for their own sake. It is all about the movement of paint, less about the actual likeness, yet I feel an image and expression  of some small degree of accuracy in this selfie.

TOUCH OF GREY/GREEN SCARF 2016
water based oil on canvas
at the Miller Art Museum in Sturgeon Bay WI

CAT WITH SPIDERWORT 2016
waterbed oil on canvas
Community Mosaic Project
Hardy Art Gallery, Ephraim WI

 MOSAIC PAINTING PROJECT
The fundraiser known as the Community Mosaic  event is happening at the Hardy gallery in a few weeks. I have submitted a piece again this year.  A still life with cat and spiderwort, with space divided into flat color fields, the piece is inspired by Japanese prints, with no visible light source, no shadows, just the articulated forms of the cat and the arcs of the spiderwort leaves to give it interest.









COLLECTION INVITATIONAL
HARDY GALLERY- July 22- August 2016

APPROACHING STORM 2016
water based oil on canvas
for the Collection Invitational Silent Auction
Hardy Art Gallery, Ephraim WI

I have donated a piece to the Hardy, for their annual silent auction. Two pieces go on exhibit, one for show and one for sale. I chose to submit  for sale, APPROACHING STORM in water based oil on canvas. It  is a good representation of the recent storms that moved through quickly  the last several nights. Inspired by the view from the farm house studio windows looking west toward the Peil creek valley and Door County Land Trust property on the McNeil Farm. The view has been painted by many but probably not as often or as intensely as i have studied it through seasonal changes, in snow and rain, in summer blossoming and autumn golds, the view is my muse.

SALON DE REFUSÉ or What Steve calls THE HARDLY, with no ill feelings or malice, we have decided to honor those rejected each year, or for the next year at least, by holding a pop up show for one day only, with a party, for artists who bravely enter the Hardy annual salon each year, and face rejection, because the show is so popular and  hugely supported with entrants each year, nearly 50% of the entrants do not get accepted into the final showing.

A memory

Song of the Lark by Jules Breton, Art Institute of Chicago

July 6, 2016

What inspires me?  What gets me back to the studio, or out in the field with a french easel?
I have thought about that a lot recently and have to say I  just marvel at the fields of hay and oats in my neighborhood, the  gentle green hills and the lake, the blend of pine and maple  timber and the shoreline that bless this strip of land in northeastern Wisconsin.
Lake Michigan is just a mile to the east of us.
Today,  I write from home with window views to Kangaroo Lake.  There are families of Canada geese and merganser, kingfisher and herring gulls, and in the winter, a lone otter runs past.
When I drive to my studio in the old farm house two miles away, I pass through Land Trust property, farm fields and old cemeteries.

The changing light, fickle in its forms of expression, continues to intrigue and bring moments of wonder and awe. On one side we have the vast waters of Lake Michigan, and on the other, the more contained but equally wondrous waters of Green Bay, not the city, the actual bay. This place has both the sunrise and the sunset covered, crowds gather on either side, while others seek solitary  hikes to places like Tofts Point, Anclam Park, or the waters end roads on the Green Bay side of the peninsula.

When I was a toddler, I  discovered the joys of a tulip, it is my first memory, standing outside our home on West Harrison street, there is my brother beside me, reaching to the blossom encouraging me to look into it. I  was enchanted from that moment, by light, by color, and by the miracles of the universe.

Sometime after that we moved to the country, to a farmhouse that provided a roof and four walls, and vast fields of corn, beans and pastures, unencumbered by visual distractions.  There was a large pasture, cotton wood trees falling over a creek provided a natural bridge to exploration. I was horse for most of those years, and lived in perpetual joy of  the outdoor life. Each day the sunset with  new glory, and at  night the stars would rotate around the barn, with frequent glimpses of throbbing northern lights. In the winter the house would sway and moan, as Mother stuffed rags in the front door that was never used during the cold season. The sky and the weather  which filled it became a crucial element of our daily lives from season to season.  This was necessity for farm life, but also became necessity for the artist's eye.  I entertained myself with activities out of doors. One summer, I discovered  the luminous quality of tiny  wet stones in our gravel driveway and would spend hours with the  garden hose, trickling tributaries of water into the gravel, creating my own universe of tiny blue butterflies which came to drink and taste the minerals of the wet gravel. Hundreds of them would land and linger there, I was deeply impressed.

Other activities there included painting the sidewalk with a bucket of water, which my Mother devised as a distraction. Treasure hunts around the yard and Hide The Thimble also seemed like fun at the time. Another memory came to me the other day. I had a little round plastic mirror when I was very young, the  flip side of the mirror was the painting I posted at the top of the page.
Song of the Lark by Jules Breton is a painting of a peasant girl out in the field, the sun is rising I would guess,  and she may be singing, or perhaps there is a bird in there somewhere and she has stopped in her labors to just listen.  I knew larks, and this little mirror was hardly the same as looking at the real thing but I spent a lot of time staring at this reproduction. Is she  weeding a field much like I did as a teenager, walking beans for my Dad and my Uncle?

To be overwhelmed on a daily basis by beauty,  That is what it is like to live where I live. I don't paint every day, I spend a lot of time thinking about it, and about why or what I should paint, but it all boils down to this,  singing, painting, writing, its all the same, its all about gratitude and honor, and most of all, praise.

I found a youtube item on this painting, Bill Murray attributes this painting to saving his life one bleak day in Chicago. The painting is hanging in the Chicago Art Institute. As an adult, I  have seen it hanging there,  but its the memory from my childhood, of that little plastic mirror that stays with me.