About this Artist
Nancy Natale interviewed Cheryl D. McClure in May of 2015 for the online publication ProWax Journal. Following is her interview.
"What Powers Abstract Thinking"
Cheryl McClure is mostly self taught and has been painting for more than 30 years. She shows throughout the U.S. and is represented by five galleries. Living on a ranch in northeastern Texas, she finds influences in nature – the trees, sky, pastures, pond and creek – but is careful to say that she does not try to replicate what she sees. Rather she lets her observations come through as she paints and “has a conversation with the paint and the process.” She is most interested in surface quality, color relationships and formal design.
Nancy Natale: What draws you to abstraction as an approach to painting?
Cheryl McClure: I am not sure there is an easy explanation. As a kid, I drew, but I was never really attracted to drawing or painting people and things. I see now in retrospect that I was more interested in the colors and shapes in a work of art.
NN: Would you comment on the idea of abstraction allowing you to have greater freedom in painting. Do you think that’s true? Or does the “freedom” of not trying to represent something make it more difficult?
CMC: I feel that I have more freedom, more that I can do or say without having to spell out something I would rather keep to myself. Most people would think of me as a gregarious, extroverted person, but I have a side to me that is very private and this is a little bit of protection.
I am invested in the emotional side of things. I don’t always identify it as emotional, but my work does come directly from my own experience, and usually is just an unexpected and unconscious inspiration. I have come to realize that I generally paint from non-objective to abstraction. In other words, I set parameters in my work with formal issues. Then, as I work, relationships in the painting begin to take on meaning that possibly only I will know. It might not be what others will see, but that doesn’t matter to me.
The emotional involvement to me includes some kind of gesture and a sense of space – probably coming from working less abstractly in the early years. When I am painting, I paint furiously and quickly, then I look and analyze, taking a lot longer than the time I actually spent painting. The brain can get in the way of the hand and the brush and this is my way of trying to avoid that.
NN: How do you begin a painting?
CMC: Sometimes it’s entirely arbitrary because I have set myself up to work with whatever relationships develop as I go along. However, I began a continuing series in 2014 when I started thinking more about intent after reading On Looking, Eleven Walks With Expert Eyes by Alexandra Horowitz. I started looking around me more carefully and then took days at a time just jotting down words or phrases that I thought would be inspiration for paintings. I called the series “Annotation” and also noted the color inspirations.
NN: Is struggle a necessary part of painting for you?
CMC: It has become a part of my work. Usually I do not really want to know exactly where I am going when I begin a painting but only have a generalized map of what I intend, when I do have a more fixed intention. I don’t have to think about it much in the beginning because I can do just about anything and make a layer
that adds to the richness that I hope to achieve in the final work.
I’ve come to believe that the longer you paint, the more you realize how little you know. You become more critical of your work. Hence all those ugly middle layers. That said, I am thankful for the few paintings that come now and then without a lot of struggle, as though someone else painted them.
NN: What effect does changing mediums have on your work? Do you find you work differently in one medium than another?
CMC: I studied watercolor painting when I first began painting since that was the only thing available from teachers in my area. I didn’t love watercolor because it took too much pre-planning, but I learned a lot about negative shapes. I also learned a lot from using pastels and charcoal about the marks I like to make. I like acrylic because I can layer over and over without a problem of compatibility. I find that working with oil and encaustic slows me down a lot, but sometimes slowing down is a good thing. The richness and surface qualities of oil and encaustic are very appealing. I think working back and forth with all these mediums helps me to grow as a painter.
NN: Are you ever inspired by particular places?
CMC: Pier is an example of my being inspired by a place. I’ve made several trips to Provincetown, Mass. for the annual International Encaustic Conference. I have been struck by the color and the shapes of the piers, boats and buildings there. Not being a coastal person, I didn’t start out to paint this, but I found myself making these marks with large brush loads of paint on the canvas. It just developed and somewhere in the process it became Pier. More than likely others do not see it this way, but this is Provincetown to me.
Resume
CHERYL D. McCLURE
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS / AWARDS
2020
University of Texas, College of Pharmacy Partnership Exhibit, Tyler, TX
Beauty of Art and Medicine IV, Rogers Nursing and Health Sciences Building, Tyler Junior College, Tyler, TX
Stable, Cerulean Gallery, Dallas, TX
2019
Mississippi Art Colony Fall Travel Show, juror, Stanley Kurth
Small Works, Gallery Mack, Seattle, WA
2017
Black Tie (optional), Invitational, Adam Peck Gallery, Provincetown, Mass.
Mississippi Art Colony Fall Travel Show, David Hornung, juror, Meridian Museum of Art, Meridian, Miss., Southern Cultural Arts Center, Vicksburg, Miss., Museum of the Mississippi Delta, Greenwood, Miss.
You Name It, Cerulean Gallery, Amarillo, Texas
2016
N° 10, Invitational, Adam Peck Gallery, Provincetown, Mass.
2015
One + One, Invitational, A Gallery Art, Provincetown, Mass.
2014
East Texas Regional Artists, Longview Museum of Fine Arts, Longview Texas (4 person)
Mississippi Art Colony Fall Travel Show, Jenene Nagy, juror
(Mary C. O’Keefe Center for the Arts, Ocean Springs, Miss., Meridian Museum of Art, Meridian, Miss., Wm. Carey College, Hattiesburg, Miss.)
2013
Texas Rugged and Shiny. LuminArte Gallery, Dallas, Texas
SEVEN, International Encaustic Conference, Provincetown, Mass., Shawn Hill, juror
RED, A Gallery, Provincetown, Mass.
Texas Women with Brushes, Jack Meier Gallery, Houston, Texas (2 person)
2012
EncaustiCon 2012, Gallery Nord, San Antonio, TX, Paula Berg Owen, juror
WAX: Contemporary Art Works, Pajaro Valley Arts Council, Watsonville, CA
Wise Earth: Land and Art, Wise Earth Gallery, Denton, TX, curator, Katy Crocker
Continuum 2012, VamArt, Inc., Metuchen, NJ
2011
One Foot of Wax, North Lake College, Irving, TX
Mississippi Art Colony Travel Show, Guild Hardy Architects Purchase Award, Sheri Fleck Rieth, juror
Hunting Art Prize Finalist
*Paintings, DCL, Tyler, TX
2010
Fusion, PFAMily Arts Gallery, Plano, TX
Melting Point, Arts Centre of Plano, Plano, TX
*Influenced by the Land, Encaustic Center, Richardson, TX
Hive, Cole Art Center, Nacogdoches, TX
2009
Uncommon Composites, Cerulean Gallery, Dallas, TX
Meltdown, Art Hotel Gallery, Dallas, TX
Global Swarming, TX Discovery Gardens Gallery, Dallas, TX
Encaustic Methods, Tarrant County Community College, Arlington, TX
The Alchemy of Encaustic, Ann Dean Turk Gallery, Kilgore College, Kilgore, TX
2008
Coming Home, Longview Museum of Fine Arts, Longview, TX
Some Like It Hot, Bath House Cultural Art Center, Dallas, TX
Texas Artists Museum, Port Arthur, TX, Firehouse Gallery, Fort Worth, TX
2007
Landscapes, Longview Museum of Fine Arts, Longview, TX
*Little Pieces of Land, Joyous Lake Gallery, Pinetop-Lakeside, AZ
Mississippi Art Colony Travel Show, Meridian Art Museum, Meridian, MS
East – West, Meeting in the Middle, Hilligoss Galleries, Chicago, IL
2006
Artist Residency, Centre d’Art Contemporain (Cat’Art)
Sainte Colombe sur lâ Hers, France
Mixed Media Invitational, Longview Museum of Fine Arts, Longview, TX
2005
Dance with the Imagination, 3 artists, West End Gallery, Winston-Salem, NC
Southwestern Water Society Signature Members Show, Irving Art Center, Irving, TX, Marcie Inman juror of awards, Honorable Mention
2004
East Texas Regional Exhibit, Longview Museum of Fine Art, Longview, TX; juror, David Band
Traveling the Carolinas, National Association Of Women Artists
Mississippi Art Colony Travel Show, Spring, Joseph A Smith, juror
Artist Career Training 1st National Juried Exhibition, 2nd place Award, jurors, Geoffrey Gorman, Aletta de Wal
*Places, Remembered and Imagined  Ronald Miller Gallery, Meridian Community College, Meridian, MS
Texas Visual Arts Association Citation Show, Kenneth Craighead, juror
Art du Quai International Plein Air Show, Esperaza, France
2003
43rd Annual Invitational, Longview Museum of Fine Art, Longview, TX; juror, Suzanne Weaver, Assoc. Curator of Contemporary Art, Dallas Museum of Art
International Mini-Art Exchange Porto Alegre, Brazil, Swan Valley,Western Australia
TVAA Regional Open Exhibition, Plaza of the Americas, Dallas, TX; juror, Nancy Whitenack
Mississippi Art Colony Spring Traveling Show; juror, David Horton, Thibodaux, LA
Illuminations, National Association of Women Artists, New York, NY
2002
*New Paintings, Nordys Gallery, Birmingham, AL
Mississippi Art Colony Spring 2002 Traveling Exhibit, Byrd Associates Purchase Award, 2nd Place; juror, David Moore, Newton, MA
Western Federation of Watercolor Societies 27th Annual Exhibition, Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque, NM, Signature Award
Inspired By The Land, Attleboro Museum, Attleboro, MA
2001
Watercolor Without Boundaries, Irving Art Center, Irving, TX and Villa Pomini, Milan, Italy (invitational juried exhibit sponsored by Southwestern Watercolor Society and Northern Italian Watercolor Society), juror, Marcie Inman, Gallery Director, Irving Art Center
Images Within, Art Merge Gallery, Dallas, TX
Peaceful Insights, Art Merge Gallery, Dallas, TX National Association of Women Artists Exhibit, Jemison-Carnegie Museum, Talladega, AL Mississippi Art Colony Traveling Show, Hugh Williams Purchase AwardTexas Visual Arts Association Citation Show, Dallas, TX, Don Taylor, juror Signature Award
2000
National Association of Women Artists 111th Annual Exhibit, New York, NY
Southwestern Watercolor Society Signature Awards Exhibit, Plano,TX
Texas Visual Art Association Citation Show, Dallas, TX, Paul Harris, juror
(*solo exhibits)
SELECTED COLLECTIONS (public)
Longview Museum of Fine Art, Permanent Collection, Longview, TX
Brandywine Realty Group, Austin, TX
Terrebonne General Medical Center, Houma, LA
F. A. Richards Associates (FARA) collection, Mandeville, LA
DeLoitte Consulting, Dallas, TX
Lane-Bryant, Garland, TX
Guild Hardy Architects, Biloxi, MS
Invesco, Houston, TX
Kollman-Westerheim, Dallas, TX
Longview Museum of Fine Arts, Longview, TX
May Company, Foleys division, Houston, TX, The Woodlands TX , Willowbrook, Houston, TX Beaumont, TX, Baton Rouge, LA, Lafayette, LA, Lake Charles, LA, Denton, TX El Paso, TX, McAllen, TX , San Antonio, TX
Byrd & Associates, Jackson, MS
Alliance Capital Management, New York, NY
Meridian Community College, Meridian, MS
CBC Cadence Bancorp, LLC, Houston, TX
Jun Yamada Seba (Nujabes), Tokyo, Japan
Others upon request
PUBLICATIONS:
2015
Smaller Than Death, by Theodore Worozbyt, 17 paintings featured in a poetry book
What Powers Abstract Painting? interview on ProWax Journal Issue 9 by Nancy Natale
2013
Encaustic Art, Jennifer Margell (interview, multi-page)
2012
Journeys to Abstraction, Sue St. John
2011
Piney Woods Live magazine, April issue, interview, Amanda Retallack
New Creative Collage Techniques, Nita Leland, cover, and two pages
Six Miles Out of Overton, Interview on Lynette Haggard online blog
2010
A Walk Into Abstracts, How Did They Do That?, DVD and book, Sue St. John
2008
Confident Color, an Artist’s Guide to Harmony, Contrast, and Unity, Nita Leland, cover art
2007
The Dauber Wings, Theodore Worozbyt, cover art
Gacela of Narcissus City, J. P. Dancing Bear, cover art
Hydeout Productions, 2nd Collection, CD cover art
2006
The New Creative Artist, Nita Leland, cover art
A Unified Theory of Light, Theodore Worozbyt, cover art
2005
National Poetry Review, Summer, 2005, cover art
2002
Depository Trust & Clearinghouse Corp. Annual Review (all interior art)
2001
International Artist Magazine, August-September issue, USA Master Showcase,
painting featured, pg. 24
Studio Notes, Journal for working artists, June-August issue, a marketing article
2000
Sabine Magazine, spring 2000 issue; online cultural magazine, featured artist
1999
Watercolor Magic, autumn issue; Take Control of your Palette by Nita Leland, painting featured pg. 65
Education
Institute of American Indian Arts, Santa Fe, NM
Centre d’art Contemporain, Sainte Colombe sur l’Hers, France, artist residency
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