Cheryl Powell

I have been creating art for most of my life, but the years from 1986 to 1999 were spent working as a Graphic Designer for Sara Lee Corporation, which left no time for painting. I began to paint seriously in 1999. Inspired by a plein-air pastel and oil workshop with Bob Rohm at Willow Wisp Farm Studios in Asheville, NC, I began to paint outdoors using pastels.

Painting outdoors, capturing the light on a subject at a particular moment is the most challenging and exhausting kind of painting I have ever done, but I love it! A photo of something that inspires me is usually a disappointment when I get back to the studio. The camera can never capture the smells, the feel of the breeze and the intensity of the light that somehow find their way into the painting.

Being an artist is a remarkable way to go through life. I have learned much from wonderful artists who were so willing to share including Ralph Oberg, Doug Dawson, Dee Beard Dean, Margaret Dyer, Scott Burdick, Susan Lyon as well as my fellow POPS members. I owe a lot to these teachers who have shown me how to see. Once you learn how to see, everything is a visual treat.

I am a member of the Southeastern Pastel Society, Charter Member of The Piedmont Outdoor Painting Society, and an exhibiting member of Associated Artists of Winston-Salem. I studied Fashion Design at Pratt Institute, hold a BFA in Graphic Design from Carnegie-Mellon University and a MA from Syracuse University in Illustration.