Cynthia Asherman
Cynthia Asherman‘s paintings are strong, colorful works. She has developed both abstract and realistic representational skills. Her audiences have expressed the experience of looking not at a painting, but of looking through their own eyes directly into the scene before them.
Most often, her chosen subjects are the countryside, the gardens, and powerful waters of Maine. In Ms. Asherman’s paintings, human efforts and creations are seldom given a primary role unless they have made peace with nature; it is the earth’s unequivocal beauty that empowers her works.
Plein Air painting is Ms. Asherman’s chosen specialty. It brings unique challenges: an excessive number of variables affecting the paint itself, such as humidity and wind, direct sun, airborne particles, insects investigating colorfully painted flowers and palettes; collapsing chairs and easels, over-zealous ocean waves, sharp rock seats which become unbelievably sharp after the first 45 minutes of the painting process, little rain showers, big thunder storms… This is an introduction to the lively experience of painting en plein air that has captivated Ms. Asherman for years. And should you come upon her during a painting spree, you will most likely find her wrapped in a fusion of excitement, peace and total enjoyment of the moment, perhaps grinning through a mouthful of various brushes.
Ms. Asherman’s education in painting has been primarily through many workshops featuring a single artist instructor, but also includes classes at MECA/&D and other schools. She received instruction in oils as a child from her grandmother, Katherine King Johnson, an accomplished Vermont artist.
Ms. Asherman currently exhibits in multiple Maine galleries, including Yarmouth Frame and Gallery, and the Sea Bell Gallery of Ogunquit. She has painted several commissions, large and small. Her paintings have been sold at several auctions to benefit local and national causes. Her work has been admitted into several juried shows in Maine, and has had multiple one-woman shows. Her debut exhibition occurred right here at the Merrill Memorial Library with a one woman show in 2001.
“It is very important for me to be able to paint. It is similar to being able to speak. If I
had to contain all the beauty and emotion and glory and power of what I see and feel
all around me in Nature, I would explode from it all. I need to paint.”
“Objects de’Lamour”, acrylic, 16” x 20”, $400 LOVE Statement: When on Monhegan Island I feel the Love of friends and of the universe, inviting me to connect through creativity. The island atmosphere the air itself nourishes this, and what is more loving than the act of Creation? I have striven to the air, the sunshine, and the land and objects that bask in this Love.
“Island Morning”, oil, 12” x 16”, $375 LOVE Statement: These are objects of Love for me. Flowers, part of my old woven paint box, simply shaped and beautifully glazed pottery, an intricate candle in the form of a partridge, and waves of fabric that summon the movement of the sea. All of these have a special power to make me smile.