Sheryl Shapiro – Friday Night Guest – April 4, 2025

(Submitted by Ioana Bertrand)

BIO

Sheryl Shapiro was born in South Africa and has lived in Toronto for close to 50 years. She’s been passionate about art since childhood and is a graduate of two art programs, first, Fine Arts/teaching in South Africa (Johannesburg College of Art), and later Editorial Design at OCAD (Ontario College of Art and Design). Sheryl was an Art Director and Editorial Designer for over 30 years. Her formal art studies and work career have shaped her use of colour, form, texture and composition. Sheryl is an elected member of the Ontario Society of Artists and The Colour and Form Society and is a member of the Don Valley Art Club. Sheryl has exhibited in a number of juried and group shows.

SOCIAL MEDIA

www.instagram.com/sherylshapiroart
www.facebook.com/SherylsArtExplorations

PRESENTATION

Sheryl shared with us her artistic journey, from formal training and realist art to abstract painting. She defined for us non-objective art and mentioned other artists to illustrate the genre, then demonstrated by painting, explaining every step of the process in a very clear yet captivating style. Sheryl’s process was fascinating to behold, as structure and beauty seemed to coalesce from chaos. We are most grateful to Sheryl for a memorable and very enjoyable presentation.

DEFINITION

Sheryl’s explanation of abstract or non-objective art: the artist is not using a realistic reference, but his/her imagination; it’s like listening to music without lyrics. Abstracted art modifies and interprets, whereas non-objective art remains non-representational, yet still follows the principles of art and design.

Then Sheryl illustrated her point with a slide show and a list of abstract painters, as examples of the variety of possible approaches: Rodchenko, Jean Miro, Motherwell, Delaunay, Piet Mondrian, Rothko, Klee, Nicholson, Twombly, Gerhard Richter, Judy Woods*, Louise Fletcher*, Nicholas Wilton*, Judith Murray*, Julie Schumer*

* = contemporary artists on Instagram, who give interesting workshops and advice

SHERYL’S PROCESS

While demonstrating, Sheryl encouraged us to explore and paint along.

Draw rough black-and-white thumbnail sketches, then coloured ones. Choose one to develop in a larger format. Start with gestural ‘scribbles’ with pencil on paper, water soluble pencils, woodies, graphite stick, pencil crayons, etc. for the first draft, to anchor the composition. Then lay a first wash of colour with the brush, using either water [spreads scribbled colour more] or medium [less].

Keep adding layers of colour with a brush, some thinned to quasi-transparency, alternating with gestural marks in Sharpie, ink on a twig [unpredictability of the mark] or thin long brush to add more scribbles that will be half-visible from under the paint layers.

Apply tissue paper with medium for added texture, and continue to build successive layers of paint, occasionally scraped to reveal under-layers, while developing the painting’s structure and composition, always keeping in mind the shapes and colours that serve it. Add more detail and contrast.

MATERIALS USED

• A gessoed surface to paint on. It can be a canvas, a wooden board, a piece of thick cardstock or thick watercolour paper, etc.
• Mark-making tools: pencil, charcoal, woodies, Posca pens or other markers, twigs, pencil crayons, graphite stick, water soluble pencils [Neocolor], etc.
• Paints [acrylic or watercolour or thinned oil of your choice] and suitable-sized brushes
• For texture and patterning: a comb, credit card for scraping, catalyst wedges, stencils, collage papers, tissue papers, etc.
• All the usual stuff like water containers, medium, rags/paper towel