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Self-taught painter thrives despite art class horrorFeatured in I Love Creston Magazine - Apr, 2012 Trish Bartlett
Sheri Marean discovered her passion at an early age.
“I have always loved horses and dogs and have always drawn them,” she says.
As we speak, I discover she is self-taught, making pencil sketches of animals, copying from pictures.
“I almost failed art in high school,” she says with a smile. “I didn’t like having to draw apples and bananas. I wanted to draw horses. The teacher assigned a project where we had to draw something on a grid and I just couldn’t get it. I got 53 per cent on the project.
“That same year I entered an art contest at the Calgary public library. I won second prize. My art teacher asked me what it was all about and I told her. She didn’t say anything, just made a face.”
She shows me her winning drawing; it is of horses.
Having survived high school Marean travelled, always drawing, before returning to Calgary where she became the resident artist for the Alberta Bowhunters Association.
“Whenever a hunter achieved a certain number of kills he was made a master hunter and presented with a drawing,” she says, showing me examples of drawings she had made, the hunter portrayed in the middle with images of bears, moose, elk and deer surrounding him.
“People are hard to draw. The animals were much more fun.”
Other work came her way as she attended various horse and dog shows.
“People gave a photo of their animal and asked me to draw a picture,” says Marean, who received a lot of commission work that way and through word of mouth.
She moved to Creston in 2008 with her immediate family, following her parents who had moved here earlier. That was when she wanted learn to paint and began to experiment with acrylics.
“I took a painting class to learn the techniques of painting but it was like high school art and I didn’t really learn much,” she says. “I took a second class and it was much more relaxed. The students were able to learn from each other.”
She is, in essence, a self-taught painter, moving from acrylics into oils.
“I’ve entered what I call my ‘tree’ period,” she laughingly explains, showing me a number of pictures of hauntingly beautiful, lonely trees created in vivid colours.
Marean has found a lucrative market on the Internet where she sells originals and prints of her works.
“I make use of the online auctions like eBay,” she says.
Lately, she’s ventured into a new area and has begun offering decorated horseshoes on eBay. “They sell
well and I really enjoy making them.”
She is only starting to display her work locally.
“I was in the art and craft show before Christmas and did well there,” she says.
Some of her work is displayed at Kootenay Candles and in Bragg Creek Store. She’s also been offered the opportunity to hang her works in Creston Valley Hospital and Canyon-Lister Elementary School.
We look forward to seeing more of Marean’s artwork around town.
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