The Translucency of Infinity
Cheryl Wheeler’s studio at Wood Bay on the Sunshine Coast envelops the visitor in a glow that beguiles — the illumination does not seep through the skylight, it emits from within the space. Gentle reverberations of light exude from the art on the walls and the easels.
The current body of acrylic paintings is an exploration of colour in the spectrum of the soft and quiet. Multitude of images are folded into the paintings through the life of the paint itself. Abstracted seascapes emerge out of controlled pouring of paint and disciplined mixing of colour following the strict logic of colour theory. The outcome is the antithesis of order — landscapes are implied, not described. They are neither exact, nor perfect, yet they are unapologetically beautiful, intended to please and create a sense of awe and joy for the admiring eye. The artwork certainly channels Cheryl’s deep gratitude for the beauty of the Sunshine Coast, a place that is home to the artist for part of the year.
The series is coherent in the themes that run through the canvases and feed Cheryl’s artistic urge — the incessant natural beauty of the surroundings and her mission to offer art that is hopeful and harmonious, a refuge from a world in disruption. Cheryl has explained that her art is meant to support the viewer and to allow us to embrace the beauty of the imperfect.
Surprisingly, in her career as an artist Cheryl has not polarized between abstract and representational painting. Quietly stored in a far corner of the studio are a few pieces from previous series devoted to the study of flowers and compelling portraits. Twenty-five years ago, with a career in finance, she began taking spontaneous breaks interrupting 60-hour work weeks to satisfy a deeper drive to make beauty, tangible beautiful things with her hands. Her chosen medium is painting (for now) and it clearly offers an open and rich field to experiment with technique and subject matter of deep personal relevance.
Published in Sunshine Coast Arts Magazine Volume I
Back to the current series, looking deeper into the colours that pull apart, the interplay of negative space and diffused light, another theme appears. These canvases reveal how the artist thinks through problems in troubled times without ever making explicit didactic well-arranged “pictures”. The body of work is rather a swirling force of possibilities in the translucency of colour — infinite possibilities that could form into a view, or an image and then continue to recreate themselves into more possibilities.