In The News

Artist Guild presenting a show of self-portraits
Posted: Sunday, May. 10, 2009 Charlotte Observer, Neighbors Section, Charlotte, NC

Women in the Mooresville Artist Guild are painting themselves. Last year they created portraits and sculptures of each other. Now they're looking inward.
Cheri Simmons, coordinator of “Women Paint Women: The Self-Portrait Series,” has invited guild members to create self-portraits.
Painters and sculptors are preparing new pieces to be unveiled during the Artists' Reception and Gallery Crawl at the Depot Fine Arts Center, 103 W. Center Ave., from 6 to 8 p.m. June 12.
For an experienced artist who already has done a self-portrait, this project provides an opportunity to revisit oneself. Simmons has never attempted a likeness of herself.
Although some artists look in the mirror while painting a likeness, she's working from a photo because it's less distracting.
“When I start painting, I can envision what I want it to look like, but I don't know how I'm going to get there,” said Simmons, who's been painting two years.
She discovered her artistic talent after leaving corporate life in Colorado and moving here. One day she bought brushes, paints and canvases, set up in the backyard and began painting.
Lacking focus, she enrolled in Art 101 at the Depot and developed an appreciation for oils.
“I love the way they smell and move around on the canvas,” she said.
Then, she found a plein air workshop in Marshville. “Plein air” is a French technique for painting outside in natural light. Simmons had discovered a way to combine her love of the land and nature: landscapes.
At the workshop, she learned she knew little about painting. So she painted and listened to her instructor; the result was a beautiful landscape of a country dirt road.
Validation occurred when Simmons won honorable mention for the scene at a MAG fall show. Someone bought the piece during the art crawl.
“It was a huge moment,” she said. “I had learned to communicate what I saw in the landscape, and someone … fell in love with it.”
Simmons is changing her view of the world by retraining the way she looks at things. She's shedding preconceived ideas and learning to see shapes rather than objects. “Sometimes someone will walk up to a painting and tell me exactly where the scene is,” she said. “That's cool.
“I'm excited about being an artist. … My husband shows my Web site, www.cherisimmonsart.com, to people.”
Simmons said she is not an overnight success.
“I still have a stack of canvases in my closet that didn't turn out to be anything,” she said.

Sandra Phillips is a freelance writer in Mooresville.