I’m a very passionate person and I like to share my passion for the things I love, including flowers and landscapes. My paintings are my interpretations of these things.

I work only in soft pastels because of how intense the color is and how flexible and immediate they are. I use either sanded paper, like ColorFix, or Kitty Wallis or 140 cold press water color paper sanded to a velvety finish. I like sanded surfaces because they add texture to the painting. I work mainly in my studio using photographs and lots of artistic license. I begin a painting by mapping in the large shapes and then, using magenta and eggplant, I map in the brightest lights and darkest darks.

I started painting by studying Chinese brush painting. I loved the contrast between a complex technique and the simplistic subject matter of mostly flowers and landscapes. Chinese brush painting has a lot of rules and you learn by copying the masters. I view my current work as a progression from brushing painting. I kept the flowers and landscaping subjects but now I do it my way. My goal with my pastels is for the viewer to feel the passion I have for my subject. I want you to feel like you can walk into a landscape or smell a flower without the painting being photographic.

Life is a palette, use bright colors!

Cheryl Garcia