Cheryl Dyment

Member Since 2019

I was an “artist-in-waiting” for most of my life. Then, one day, I realized and accepted that I, indeed, am an artist, and my life blew open. “Just get out of my way, and let me do this!”

Immediately, I enrolled in Masako Kamiya's freshman drawing class at Montserrat. I took a number of classes there and at the Radcliffe Institute. I started oil painting with private instruction from Kathleen Speranza, and pursued various workshops offered around the North Shore.

I was a plein air painter for many years, but there was more adventure waiting for me. I needed to break away from the confines of a representational canvas no matter how beautiful. I needed to dig down deep and paint how I felt about that scene, or sensation, or memory. My first abstracted series appeared out of one such memory. I discovered a well so deep, I can still return to it for inspiration. That series is “The Floating Series,” 15 paintings recalling a summer beach day when I was rescued from drowning and left with an oddly beautiful memory. I had three solo shows around that theme and one piece “Regression” won an award from George Nick and the South Shore Art Center.

In 2013, my work took a further leap into non-representational abstraction with a course with Jordan Wolfson, of Colorado. In 2017, I was awarded a solo show at Marblehead's King Hooper Mansion. “Journey into Abstraction” included 34 abstract works inspired by poetry, nature, memory and even politics. A few months later I survived a brain aneurysm rupture and wasn't able to paint for almost two years in spite of a great recovery. It took a lot of time to get my brain to cooperate and this is when I truly began to appreciate how hard abstract painting truly is.

There is a silver lining to going through such an experience. Once you get to the other side, trivial concerns and hang ups no longer block your creative expression. My paintings of the last few years since then feel authentic and honest. I have continued to push my envelope and relish the discovery process, each layer revealing another truth. One of my first paintings after my return to working is called “Unleashed.” That title and the painting, itself, describe my good fortune at being alive better than any words.

I work primarily in oil and/or acrylics, adding other medium as I like, on linen, canvas, and good quality paper. My sense is that I am an abstract expressionist, admiring the work of Joan Mitchell, Helen Frankenthaler, Lee Krasner, and Willem deKooning, among others. My reason for creating art has become clearer and, simultaneously, more expansive. Generated by a deep need to celebrate the human spirit, I have no choice but to energetically express that which is pulsing inside: joy, energy, strength, movement, rhythm, and a recognition of the gifts that each day can bring. It is intense, and satisfying work.

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