About Cheryl Perrett

Being a painter is about constantly exploring, and making a response. In my working practise I have different approaches:

• Expressive movement inspired abstract canvases and pastels
• large scale gestural paintings with female figures as the subject, and
• detailed precise small technique orientated works again with the female as subject. The interplay of colour fascinates me as I work and I use it in preference to tones in order to create form and depth and feeling.

Life interests me and the past fascinates me. I am always watching and absorbing via sketchbooks, notes and logging moments in my ‘head library’; recall of past events and sensations combine with themes to inform what and how I paint. I am a living sponge of art. I see human form in landscape, we are part of it, we are it.

I am a woman artist. Feminism is a beautiful word and concept which engages me with my role of exploring my own position as a female painter today, and peeling back the layers to reveal a long line of unrecognised talented past women artists. It is a word of politics and social context, a word for my life.

The Italian Renaissance is a period that I return again and again to; a time of “daring to be”, an expansion of ideals, and ideas of progression tied up with humanity: warts and all. I explore beauty, I explore pain.

I revel in the process of creating: physically wrestling with stretchers and canvas constantly questioning my methods; unpicking and rebuilding my doing. My intention is for the work to resonate and stand with meaning for others. How satisfying it is when someone stands absorbed in front of a work of mine or revisits it many time to just breathe it in again.

Some pieces need more work, over years until this stage is reached, and many are destroyed. I do strongly believe that all my best works have been started by me yet somehow finished by the paint.. which takes over; its quite fascinating and constantly challenging. At times I question how much of me is in the paintings ; the paintings/ drawings are in part self portraits but never form the whole. I am in each landscape, each abstract creation, I am the human subject and then not. I share this with every other creative being musician, dancer etc.etc.

I need the smell of paint and the challenge of colour.