Mystic landscapes and earthy vessels transport viewers

Oil paintings by Cheryl Long offer fascinating insight into landscapes both exterior and interior this summer, with an exciting new body of work presented alongside ceramic vessels by Laura Keil as part of the Artcraft Showcase series.

Local art lovers will be likely familiar with Long’s dreamy coastal scenes, where combinations of beach, driftwood and sky cast a spell through stylized forms, slightly reminiscent of the Group of Seven’s Lawren Harris. In Ordinary Exaltations, she seeks to express the feeling produced by majestic mountains and coastlines, rather than trying to represent those exact forms. 

“This recent body of work holds my longing to connect with the intangible, exalted essence of the world around me,” Cheryl explains. “In exploring the extraordinary nature of what I see in material reality, I try to reach beyond the physical to include the energetic, emotional and spiritual aspects I sense in nature, intending to express the inherent dignity and divinity in all living things.”

Cheryl had a career as a graphic artist and illustrator, but has devoted her time to painting since moving to Salt Spring around 10 years ago. She has recently been inspired by the resurgence of the Transcendentalist movement of the early 1900s – especially the artist Agnes Pelton, in whose work she finds a kindred philosophy. Her personal quest ever since beginning to paint with oils has been “to explore how we are in intimate relationship with our environment, how we are connected and not separate from our natural world.” 

Cheryl’s past work was often based on photographs and conveyed the beauty she actually witnessed in the world, although in her own expressive style. But after a trip to the Yukon last year she realized she could not truly capture the majesty she experienced, and so her new paintings take the path of Pelton and the Transcendentalists to convey a more spiritual sense of nature. Her artistic journey has led to deep interior probings, where she faced difficulty as well as encountering a sense of divine feminine power.

“I went somewhere very different this time, and it was also a year and a half of really diving into some deep, dark places … and then coming up again,” Cheryl says. “So it was kind of a hard show, but I feel like it's my strongest, truest work.”

Cheryl’s original poetry will accompany the paintings. She explained she often doesn’t know where a painting comes from, so when she is finished she spends time interrogating its deeper meaning. The poetry reflects the response.

“I just ask the painting to speak to me, and I write the poems when I'm sitting in front of them after they're done. It really helps me to process it more and understand, or bring it into my conscious awareness, because before that, it comes from the unconscious and the subconscious,” Cheryl explains.

Joining her for the exhibition is Salt Spring ceramic artist Laura Keil, who has shared a collection of large hand-built vessels that appear to have emerged from the earth over a long period of time. Some of the pots are fired in a wood kiln, while others are glazed with a surface that resembles the patina on weathered bronze or copper. Laura describes the various finishes as “a kind of alchemy, a collaboration with the chemistry of clay and glazes and the atmosphere of the kiln.”

The pots take on a life of their own as the form slowly develops, and there is an intimate relationship between pot and potter. Laura finds these large pieces are especially exciting to make because of how they relate to the scale of the human body. “The work becomes a dance with a figure, it is hugged and caressed. Ideally, the result is a form that has a strong presence and a sense that it grew organically.”

A fantastically well-attended opening reception for Cheryl and Laura took place at Mahon Hall on Friday, July 31 from 6 to 8 p.m., and there was a full house for the artist talk with Cheryl followed on Sunday, Aug. 2. The show continues daily through Aug. 24.

Cheryl is grateful to the Wilding Foundation and SSNAP for their generous support of this project with a Catalyst Grant.