The Chestermere Fine Art Guild is thrilled to present their 13th annual art show and sale, titled “Spring Celebration,” on Saturday, March 7th, from 10:00am until 4:00pm at the Chestermere Rec Centre in the MPP room. Each year, the Guild members collectively choose to feature an artist at the show whose inspirational work inside and outside of the studio reflects the Guild’s dedication to create and share art with the community. This year, the Guild is honoured to showcase the extraordinary artwork of long-time Guild member and Guild president, Sherry Telle.
Sherry’s artistic journey began not long after she was born in Edmonton, Alberta, in 1960. She has been drawing for as long as she can remember, and she jokingly reveals, “I have been told that I started drawing on things as soon as I could hold a pencil.” Sherry continued to pursue her passion for the visual arts when she attended the Alberta College of Art and Design (ACAD) in Calgary in the early 80s. “At the time,” Sherry explains, “art colleges pushed acrylics – and I could not learn to love them.” Although she enjoyed working with watercolours, she wanted to be a photo-realist; and that detail-oriented style was being achieved mainly through the controlled use of acrylics. “So, I spent four years trying to make them work for me,” Sherry confesses. It was not until she was asked to teach a watercolour class a couple of years after art college that she returned to using them. Over the years, Sherry has devoted herself to teaching drawing and watercolour classes, and has recently added alcohol ink classes to her repertoire: “I teach out of my home privately or at community centres, over 50 clubs and art groups, afterschool programs, and I also teach home-schooled children in a rented space – whatever suits my students best.”
After becoming a mother to two very active boys, Sherry started to use coloured pencils because “they were not toxic or messy if the kids got into them, there was no drying time or preparation time, and [she] could easily pull them out at a soccer, rugby, or hockey game.” In her coloured pencil works, Sherry applies the photo-realistic skills that she cultivated during her years at ACAD and creates highly detailed, life-like works of art. She approaches these drawings with planning, pre-drawings, grids and colour swatches and describes detail drawing as “meditative” for herself.
Recently Sherry has begun to experiment with coloured inks: “I love to play with the inks and see what comes of it; this process gives me more of a child-like wonder. It is more like allowing myself to play.” Where colour pencils need to be controlled, Sherry explains, “Inks need to be free and will look contrived if you try to control them too much, so I tend to experiment and splash and pour and drip and allow the image to come to life.”
Joining the Chestermere Fine Art Guild 4 years ago was a pivotal point in Sherry’s life as an artist. She expresses that it has “renewed my love of creating art for just me. I look forward to each session and the supportive, creative, and nurturing atmosphere we have been so lucky to create.” On Thursday afternoons, Meeting Room #2 in the Chestermere Rec Centre becomes a rare and wonderful space where artists can get together, share their ideas, and work on their current piece with the support and friendship of all of the ladies who gather there.
For more information on Sherry Telle and to see more of her artwork, feel free to visit her website at www.sherrytelleart.com or her Facebook page at www.facebook.com/SherryTelleArt. To meet Sherry and all of the other lovely artists of the Chestermere Fine Art Guild, please join us on March 7th for an intimate, art-filled afternoon. See you there!
