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.