sherrie mcgraw

By Dr. Emile Bergson, Associate Director, The International Center for the Study of Progressive Neo Cubism, Vienna

Few painters in the United States or in any part of the world can match or duplicate the talent and genius of Sherrie A. McGraw. She is patient, meticulous, perfectionist, sensitive, challenging and above all, she is the master of true colors and life movement on canvases. McGraw as she stated, does not create a painting overnight. “It takes a long time to find the true color, the value, the movement of life, in other words, it takes time… Starting a painting is fairly easy, but achieving the depth is difficult. Along the way, you lose certain things and gain others. Maintaining the life without turning the painting into a rendering is a goal in which I’ve been diligently engaged for years. Now I’m ready to move on to the next stage, which grants me a certain freedom from all the hard work.”

How does she prepare herself for a new painting? How does she prepare her canvas? First, she begins to compose abstractly with a clear vision of the theme, the subject and the relation between her model and her artistic projection. McGraw positions the “subject” with raw umber as she described it in an interview with an art writer. The interview article revealed that “she basically works wet-in-wet and, while much of her work appears to derive from glazes, she uses glazes only when she can’t get the effect she wants any other way.”

Sherrie explains: “One of my early and startling revelations was that painting was not the accumulation of technique, but rather a way of relating to the world, a way of seeing and understanding reality. It was then I realized that becoming an artist involves change. We live in a fragmented world and indeed, are raised accordingly. The tendency to see differences therefore comes easier than seeing similarities. But it is the latter ability that coalesces each paint stroke, giving rhyme and reason to an otherwise daunting task of choosing from literally endless possibilities . . . The concept acts as a conductor, giving unified ideas life and direction – the focus and strength of one’s art.” This will be a wonderful class – full of ideas, learning and sharing. There will be still-life and models to work with each day and Sherrie will offer plenty of individual attention as well as demonstrate her “way of seeing”.

How about change and growth? Sherrie tells us “”To some people, change in an artist means dramatic change in subject matter,” she says. “That’s not so with me. The changes are in my level of understanding, in this case the abstract elements of a painting. And that’s what’s happening right now.”

I was admiring Sherrie’s masterpieces with Dr. Maximillien de La Croix and Dr. Gisella Muller-Anderson . Gisela was curious to know the opinion of Dr. de La Croix about Sherrie’s work. She asked him: “Is Sherrie McGraw a renaissance artist or an innovative classical visionary?” With a great enthusiasm, he replied “ Two women artists made a profound impact on me. Mary Cassat and Sherrie McGraw. What do I see when I look at McGraw’s paintings? A perfect mastery of colors, an absolute harmony between the theme-subject and the atmosphere of the artistic setting. The painting’s background is always sublime in McGraw’s paintings. Powerful Florentine artistry dominates McGraw’s movement and life pulse on her canvases yet, a sincere and touching humanistic feeling emanates from every single detail that ties and links together every inch of her painting. You can smell the aroma of history, feel the warmth of eloquent silence and sail through visions of an enchanted nostalgic world that exists uniquely in Italian Frescoes and masterpieces of the Old Italian masters. Yet, her paintings are more refreshing and truthful to our senses than those of the Maestri. Simply because, she is not painting to impress or touch the shoulders of immortality. Her genius is hard to duplicate.”

Sherrie McGraw was elected American Painter of the Year and Favorite American Painter for 2002 by our readers worldwide and our International Election Art Committee

DETAILS STUDY: UNDERSTANDING THE MYSTICAL MAGIC AND ART MASTERY IN GLENDA GREEN PAINTINGS

One of the primordial element of harmonized artistic composition in any format, school of art, style from Baroque to Rococco , from Florentine Classicism to Neo Cubism, from Impressionism to Minimalism Is the artistic unison that unites the trilogy of:

The early Christian icons and frescoes from the time of Anatolia, Urartu, Cilicia, Coptic Egypt, Bizanthia to the frescos of Firenze, Venezia and Roma did not transfigure human or divine reality, until the depth of an evocative background discretely absorbed and reflected:

C- The artistic, philosophical, religious and dogmatic symbolism of the theme illustrated on the landscape of the linens.

The background usually determines, explains and defines the school of the artist, the “genre en vogue” of the period and the sub conscience of the artist. This is eloquently visible in Titian and Boticelli work. When an artist looses the sense and transparency of thoughts, feelings and his or her intimate unity with his model or subject, the background fades melancholically, thus precipitating distance between truth in art, authenticity in style and collective identification.

Glenda Green sailed the universe of cosmic artistic truth and enchanted illustrative beauty by clothing her personages, angels, Jesus, high spirits and lovable animals with the perfect background that harmoniously united:

Three art pre-requisites are essentials to bring to the life of a painting its very existence. Glenda Green accomplished this task with grace, beauty, mastery and dignity. Look at the two details gently reproduced from a large painting. Just by looking at the background, you began to feel and realize that this “background” sets the stage for a serious, nostalgic, inspirational, divine and transcendental presence, personage, concept, even a school of thought! Glenda Green knew how to create a scenario for her theme, setting, atmosphere and how to invite her divine guests to her magical canvases. This is pure art mastery.

The clouds of Glenda Green are unique, for they have a soul. What you are looking at symbolizes the presence of the infinite celestial absence of the mind, the heart and the sacred. A cloud that unites and freely disperses forms and shapes you dare to explore exclusively in a religious vision or a divine inspiration. Look at it one more time and tell yourself what do you discover, what do you introspect and what makes your sight and heart rejoice. Now, add this divine cloud to the somber and gently imposing background and you get immortality, the “Sacred”, the “Divine”, The Nature”, The “Human-Divine Playground” and a great part of yourself.

Through this unity and composition metamorphosis, Glenda’s chromatic progression and intellectual process reach the divine. Glenda’s art transports you and elevates you to a parallel word which exclusively exists in the multi-dimensional realm of serenity, truth, beauty and presence of the “Sublime One”. What a perfect setting for Jesus, The Angels and the Noble Souls of the earth to be in, and what a perfect enchanted world and destination for the divine sprits to visit, breath, touch and melt in.

Look at this detail. Simple and simplistic in format and composition. But, if you look at it one more time and you focus your attention on the hand position, on the shape of the arm, on the movement of the fingers and particularly the small finger, you might begin to explore another philosophico-metaphysico-morphological dimension of Glenda Green art universe. Friends, this is the hand of the Lord Jesus! You could feel the divine, the human…and the ”beyond” in this detail. Try to see it with your heart. Give your mind a short walk. Explore it with respect and faith …and you will feel the urgent need to be touched and blessed by this hand. Details…details…in Glenda’s paintings freeze me before the “immortal”! Backgrounds…backgrounds in Glenda’s paintings transform my thought, my intellect, my vanity, my absurdity, my arrogance into a prayer!

Religious or spiritual inspiration nourishes the canvas, no question about it. Friends, please add this inspiration to limpid classical knowledge of the art and………the painting will begin to breath and whispers authentic art mastery. The robe usually dresses up the body. But in this painting, it envelopes it with serenity and comfort. Comfort emanated from the eloquent simplicity, so brilliantly Glenda Green flirted with. This is the Robe of the Lord, Glenda saw in her vision.

And now, look at the angel in this painting. Did you guess my thoughts? Most certainly because you are enlightened now by Glenda’s visions. Then, what are we waiting for? Let’s look at Glenda’s face. Do you see any resemblance between the Angel and Glenda Green, the prophet of the light, the artist who spoke to God, the human who conversed with the “Divine” and invited to our homes, to hills and prairies where at each dawn, a new wild rose is born, a new ray of hope caresses our windows and a new song is sung to glorify the majesty of the universe. Glenda Green is an artist prophet of an unsurpassed quality and artistic wisdom.

Awards:
		Amarillo Rotary Show, Best of Show, Amarillo, TX,1990
		Hudson Velley Art Association, Gold Medal, 1988
		Salmagundi Club, Lee Loeb Award, NY, NY 1988
		Ridgewood Art Institute, Grumbacher Award, New Jersey, 1988
		American Artist Magazine National Competition, First prize-oil, 1985
		Salmagundi Club, John R. Grabach Award, NY, NY, 1984

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MASTERS AND LEGENDS OF THE AMERICAN ARTS: SHERRIE McGRAW and GLENDA GREEN

SHERRIE McGRAW