Rebecca R Sherrick – Abstracts – Artist Portfolio Magazine

• Artist Portfolio Magazine – 2016 Abstracts Art Exhibition
• Rebecca R Sherrick – Port Murray, NJ

First of all, I would like to say thank you, to all the people investing in my artwork and my future. I am truly happy to be sharing my expression of art; sharing apart of myself, through the artworks I create. It is truly rewarding when I am acknowledged, by others, for my talent.
My works are as inspired and varied as my feelings and moods, from abstracts to figurative, from acrylic to oils, from 2D to 3D. Raised in the Midwest, primarily the state of Iowa, of German Decent, and adopted, at a small age by a wonderful family, I am a relatively quiet person living with bipolar depression. I enjoy the company of myself, actually take pride in my self-motivation. The beauty and solitude of country living allows me to be free to create, experiment and explore.
I have always enjoyed art ever since I was young. I excelled in my art classes in grade school, high school, and in college, as well, where I received my Bachelors. With a growing family, I never seriously pursued anything with my passion in the fine arts until recently.
In my working years, I did work as a graphic designer, packaging designer and creative director. I pretty much left corporate USA back in 2009, and have since been ‘finding my way’ in art. I didn’t start anything seriously with my interest in painting until around 2007, while living in SoCal. The beautiful colors of the landscapes, the brilliant colors of the sunsets, and the effect from the sun’s light on the landscape in respect to color, design and texture, inspired me to pick up a paint brush. I began ‘my style’ of painting, creating artworks for my home.
I primarily paint with acrylic. I consider ‘my style’ of painting to be of my own: colorful abstracts, leaning towards organic. “My style” is working with a dry brush technique with a twist. The twist is how these paintings begin which is the splattering of paint, and the use of a hairdryer. I turn my canvases while I work on them to change my perspective. Then I step back – look and listen to what the colors say.
I would currently peg myself as a colorist. I truly love color and the emotional effect it has on an individual. Paintings that hold my interest are those that explore color and without overt imagery, are able to suggest or provoke, a time, a place, or a feeling, with the viewer. I am interested in the colors, textures, and shapes created by, let’s say, the folds of fabric, or the silhouettes of tree branches, or the playfulness of the colors on a fall leaf, than in reproducing an image. With the complexities of combining and blending colors, I like to create intricate works that lure the viewer in, with the use geometric patterns and abstract folds, to capture an essence of movement and time on the canvas.
Occasionally, images emerge from my abstract paintings in a figurative form. Believing that we all experience wide emotions in life, I attempt to transform emotions into my oil artworks. My oil paintings represent new inner discoveries and express my personal emotions. I believe my oil paintings give the viewer a mystery in perceiving what an artist may be feeling, and perhaps, they too, may have a moment of personal reflection.
Every once in a while, I like to study an artist from the past and just explore ideas and experiment. I love the work of Stella, Kandinsky, Hoffman, and Chagall, …. and many more wonderful colorists and artists. I am still learning, rediscovering and growing with my art work, continuously fine tuning to create works with emphasis on color. I enjoy experimenting with different mediums and playing with new creative ideas. I feel this is a good practice to keep the creative cycle active and not get stuck in the mundane.  Best stated by Picasso, “Art washes from the soul the dust of everyday life.”