Cherie had a career in public policy and raised her family. In her spare time she volunteered with environment and community groups. Art was a pastime throughout her life. In 2016, she enrolled at Central Tech’s Adult Art Program and began to develop her art practice with a concentration on non-objective abstract painting. She is an intuitive painter working mostly in acrylics and some mixed media. She works in studios in Toronto and Muskoka. She has shown her work at outdoor shows in Toronto, the Federation Gallery in Vancouver, at ADC Fine Art in Cincinnati and other juried shows.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

After a career where I had to be organized and plan ahead, my art practice has taken the opposite turn. I enjoy the spontaneity of painting without a plan in mind. Painting has been a way to escape difficult periods in life as once I am engaged in the work I have a singular focus that calms my mind. I paint intuitively. I am amazed at how thoughts and emotions can flow through your body onto the canvas. I try not to labour over a piece but to engage with it energetically, responding to the marks I’ve already made without judgement. So often in life we try to “manage” situations when we really don’t have full control. Through my art practice I’ve learned to trust my instincts, to let go of the outcome and to just manage the process. My work is bold, energetic and fun.

I like to produce a sense of immediacy and rawness, letting some of the original expressive marks show through the layers and to keep it simple by using a limited palette.