Short Bio
Sherry Mason is a Top 100 Finalist in the PleinAir Salon and an award-winning representational artist residing in East Tennessee close to the border of North Carolina. Although Sherry has been an artist for over 25 years, she retired from practicing pharmacy in 2016 to pursue a full-time professional artist career, already receiving commissioned work, speaking engagements and video demonstration production
Statement
“There is a quiet, peaceful, and synergistic dance between the light and the elements in the landscape. I find it both elusive and evocative to paint and I shall never master the painting of it. It provides me endless opportunities for inspiration which is why I pursue it. This ethereal pursuit indelibly impresses my soul and I find myself assimilated into this dance as well. My paintings are representational attempts to accurately depict the essence of what I see and feel as I paint en plein air for my collectors to enjoy.”
Biography
With even a brief look at Sherry Mason’s paintings, one can see that her light brushstrokes, color harmony, and compositions are reflective responses to her life experiences and choices. Admirers of her work often describe it as inspiring, peaceful, and serene. Her preferential and deliberate decisions hallmark a lifestyle that promotes a quiet and tranquil ambiance. Her story, if told, reveals the road less traveled. Already an award winning local artist and juried into prestigious national art exhibitions and membership organizations, her work continues to be recognized more and more as reflected by requests for commissioned works, speaking engagements and workshops.
Born in Tampa, Florida, Mason spent her early and adolescent years moving from place to place all over Kentucky. Four elementary schools, two middle schools, and one high school during 28 moves before the age of eighteen, she would learn to acclimate. The constant transition from place to place with nowhere to really call home made an indelible mark on her life. Painting, drawing and writing poetry provided a way to retreat. Now, Sherry paints "a retreat to call home" onto every canvas and hopes her paintings evoke that ambiance in their homes for those who love and collect her work.
Upon graduating fourth in her class from high school, and at the behest of her father, Sherry pursued a pharmacist career at the University of Kentucky, College of Pharmacy, instead of pursuing a fine arts degree. It was there she met a dental student and her future husband, Joe Mason. Already accustomed to relocating from time to time, Sherry would follow her husband several more moves while attempting to realize his dreams and in 1998 they relocated to North Carolina. From the Sandhills of Pinehurst, NC to the inspiring mountains of the Blue Ridge in the Highlands-Cashiers plateau, Sherry would fly in their Mooney Rocket twice every week to two different homes, two different dental practices and still find time to paint a semblance of a place to retreat on canvas at least once a year.
"The cloudscapes from the airplane were amazing!"
In 2016, however, she retired from practicing pharmacy to pursue a professional art career. Influenced by the Hudson River School, Sherry Mason (www.sherrymasonart.com) is a traditional landscape oil painter residing in Tennessee. With no formal art education, she has spent the last several years studying the past and present artists of our time, such as John F. Carlson, Joseph McGurl, Ken Salaz, John Pototschnik, and others through workshops, books, and their DVDs. Forever a student of Light, her goal is to realistically, and in a painterly fashion, depict the effects of light and color that declare the glory of God as the Creator. Her practiced technique conveys a sense of immediacy and harmony that we feel in the beautiful world He created. Sherry prefers to paint en plein air for her studies, as that is how she can best interpret the light and shadows she sees, and then finishing them in the studio to most effectively convey her message.
"I have found in my journey and written in the pages of God's word, that we are just passing through this life very briefly. All the transitions from place to place have taught me how to live and expand how I view the world. The soft transitions in my brushwork are representational of how I have learned to move softly from place to place. My journey has ultimately become my greatest blessing and taught me how to see and observe!"
Resume / CV
Awards and Exhibitions:
Sherry has been juried into many local and national shows and placed as high as 2nd among her peers.
2022 Judge's Choice award, Mooresville Art Gallery's 40th Anniversary Artoberfest Judged Exhibit and Competition
Top 100 finalist in the July PleinAir Salon that was judged by Michael Ruple, director of aux gallery in Brooklyn, NY2022 National Oil and Acrylic Painters Associate Member Online Exhibition, juried into show
2022 Bascom Member Challenge PLACE, juried into show
2022 56th Annual Appalachian Art Show, juried into show
2021 National Oil and Acrylic Painters Associate Member Online Exhibition, juried into show
2021 "Explore" American Artists Professional League Spring Members Online Exhibition, juried into show
2nd place 2021 Cabarrus Artist Guild Spring Juried Show
3rd place 2021 43rd Annual SpringFest Mooresville Arts Juried Show
2nd place 2019 Cabarrus Artist Guild Spring Juried Show
2018-2019 Plein Air Salon Online Exhibitions
2017 Women Painters of the Southeast Online Show, juried into show
Juried into associate and elected memberships with prestigious organizations such as:
Oil Painters of America, Associate Member Artist
American Artists Professional League, Elected Artist Member
American Women Artists, Associate Member
National Oil and Acrylic Painters Society, Associate Member
Women Painters of the Southeast
Artist local and regional memberships:
Kingsport Artists Guild
Mooresville Artists Guild
Guild of Charlotte Artists
Cabarrus Artists Guild
PAPA - Preserving a Picturesque America
At this time, her work can be seen in her Home Studio Gallery in Jonesborough, TN by appointment only and in numerous exhibitions across the North Carolina and Tennessee.
Her artwork is included in numerous private art collections throughout the U.S. She has also created commissioned works of art and donated work for auction to the Make a Wish Foundation.
As a young adult, Sherry received the Most Talented award and Art Award in her senior year of high school. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Pharmacy from the University of Kentucky, College of Pharmacy in 1983, and retired to pursue a full-time professional artist career in 2016.
