Sylvia Colette Gehres
ARTIST STATEMENT: My degree in art is an ancient one from a small mid-Western college in Rockford, Illinois; and my creativity after graduation consisted of raising children, vegetables, and money to live on. I “took to” life drawing a decade or two ago at Walnut Creek Civic Arts when I had time to try it.
The process of drawing and painting gives me great pleasure; and when I am pleased with the product of that process, I am both surprised and delighted. When on occasion the models and others get pleasure from my efforts I am joyful!
Since I took art up again, I have entered many regional shows -- have been accepted into some, won a few prizes, and some pictures are in private collections. My work has been exhibited in Hong Kong, North Carolina, Oahu, Hawaii, Michigan, and Louisiana, as well as in San Francisco, Berkeley, Benicia, Redding, Roseville, Chico, Placerville, Danville, Antioch, Sacramento, Carmichael, UC Santa Cruz, Stockton, Alameda, Blackhawk Gallery, Marin and Santa Clara Counties in California.
I work in pastels and acrylics mainly, and have tried watercolor, oil sticks and oil pastels. Some of my pictures are scenes I see about me and then I make up the pictures from memory, like oil refineries, cities, power poles, oceans and beaches. I have painted some of my dream images; and some emotional reactions when I was diagnosed and treated for breast cancer in l994-95
.
II prefer to paint live models and memories. For the past two to three years I have been painting in the abstract, which I find very confounding but the process can be fun. My latest venture has been abstracting the many gestures I have from the Open Studio work with a model which I have to show at the 31st Gala Open Spring Art Show in Danville.
EDUCATION: BA in Art & Education, Rockford College, IL. Figure drawing & pastel with Sherry Kwint-Cattoche & Jody Mattison-German; monoprint Jacalyn Kildare; figure & watercolor Margaret Wade; studio painting Gary Bergren; abstract & non-objective Tara O’siochain in Walnut Creek Civic Arts classes. Workshops (2) pastel portrait figure w/Bob Gerbracht. abstract figure painting (2) with Lin Fischer; portrait in oils w/Hui Han Liu; acrylic workshops w/Tesia Blackburn; mixed media class w/Mira White, Mt. Diablo Adult Ed; abstract class w/Mira White Acalanes Adult Education; Abstract, Composition, printmaking & Abstracting the figure classes w/Tesia Blackburn.
She currently does not have a personal website, so please email her at: sylviacolette@yahoo.com