Artist Details

Sheryl Daane Chesnut was born in the Seattle area but moved at an early age to Marblehead, Massachusetts. While still in her formative years she moved to the Bay Area, California; the west coast has consistently been her home since then. Sheryl earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Art at UC Berkeley and UC Santa Barbara with and emphasis in print making and a minor in business. After graduation Sheryl began a career as a designer: graphic, environmental and product, and her work has won a number of awards both locally and internationally. She has always been influenced by abstract expressionism, the artists of the Bay Area Figurative Movement and Japanese woodcuts. Experimenting in a variety of materials Sheryl works with shape, texture and color to create abstract and representational abstract artwork. Sheryl currently lives in San Luis Obispo, CA.

I love a dichotomy: push and a pull, traditional images in a contemporary style, abundance of color with simple lines and shapes, and I embrace spontaneity; I don’t seek perfection but find interest in the accidents that happen in the process. With the play of light and dark I try to capture not just images but sensations, not just surfaces but the essence of what lies within. Simplicity of line is prized, extraneous detail discouraged. My paintings are loose and intuitive. I use different techniques to bring a balance to each piece. I try to reduce the image to its most basic shape. I see beauty in the figure etched by the sun and hazy in the details. My newest work is mixed media on raw edge birch panels hung with a traditional french cleat. The simplistic surface is contrasted by a multi-layered surface: paint, oil sticks, screen printing and high gloss resin are topped by semi-transparent metallic varnish details. I seek to create a dichotomy and a perfect balance between rough and polished.

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