Sheryl, the current President of Creative Arts Batemans Bay Inc. (CABBI), is until March 20, the featured artist at The Gallery in Mogo.
Sheryl has lived on the South Coast for many years and after a brief stay in Sydney her husband’s work brought her to Batemans Bay in 1988.
Sheryl's mother and grandmother were both practising artists, but for a number of years art was put to the side as Sheryl took care of the needs of her family.
With Sheryl's family all grown up, she moved into property management with a local real estate agency for ten years before retiring to focus on art. Husband Les also retired and worked to develop a beautiful garden at their Sunshine Bay home.
Les's “green thumb” gives Sheryl an unending supply of floral subjects to paint and to arrange for display in their home.
Sheryl at first struggled to master the difficult media of watercolour, but on seeing the big, beautiful watercolour paintings of the late Darryl Trott, Sheryl says, “his large watercolours of tropical flowers, lilies, irises, hibiscus & roses was an absolute turning point in my art life. I knew from then on that flowers were my natural subject.” Sheryl says, “To improve in watercolour you need to practice, practice, practice.” She practices transparent watercolour allowing the white paper to show through, giving a translucency to her work.
Very prolific, Sheryl originally studied China painting and painted in oils but her main focus now is watercolour, inks, acrylics and crafts including colourful mosaics.
Sheryl's painting, “Magnolias”, one of a number featured at The Gallery, shows three full magnolia blooms, ranked by emerging blooms and developing buds. The painting shows Sheryl’s now considerable watercolour skills in painting white on white.
Always generous and sharing with her organisational and painting skills, Sheryl Miller is founder and organiser of the outdoor painting group, the ‘All Weather Artists’.
The Gallery is a co-operative venture of CABBI, a society open to local arts and crafts practitioners. People interested in finding out more about CABBI should drop in to The Gallery, Mogo or phone 02 4474 2243.
