"Winter Branches, Summer Soil", © 2019 by Sheryl Karas

I've been remiss. I finished this piece months ago but neglected to post it here. I did an earlier version of this as a purely digital creation. It's multiple image photography of the trees I can see outside my bedroom window in the light of a street lamp. I liked it but it never felt "finished" to me. I wanted to remove a few things, emphasize others. And I wanted to make it glow, the way I see it so many nights when those lights turn on. So I printed it large (36" x 36") and painted over it with metallic paint. The original is currently available directly through me. Prints and prints on canvas are available through Fine Art America.

Caught in a Web Between Time and Space, (Berries in a Net), New Oil Pastel Painting

© Copyright 2018 by Sheryl Karas

I'm playing in this piece with combining multiple impressions seen on the same walk: berries on a tree, plastic netting falling down. The berries in real life were not in the net. This is an invented image. But I like the juxtaposition of natural and manmade, a barrier being warped by the weight of the berries and the impact of space and the passage of time. 

The original piece is 12" x 12" oil pastel and acrylic gel medium on cradled panel mounted to 16" x 16" on another cradled panel painted black. It's called "Caught in a Web Between Time and Space." Contact me for more information. Prints, prints on canvas, and other printed items made from this piece are available on Fine Art America. 

Chamomile On The Path, New Oil Pastel Painting

"Chamomile on the Path", © 2018 Sheryl Karas

Funny how things go. I did this painting months ago but set it aside because I wasn't comfortable with the surreal way it turned out. I won't say that was entirely unintentional—I was playing around with combining multiple images and angles of the same piece of landscape. But I was focussed on the tiny wild Chamomile flowers on the path across from my apartment and Chamomile is for relaxing, relieving tension and sleep. This looked way too intensely colored for a feeling like that. But my partner Paul felt differently! He said that a good night's sleep would send him off to dreamland and that's what this piece symbolized to him. Well, sure, why not? So it's back in my "good graces" now and available. The original piece is 12" x 12" oil pastel and acrylic gel medium on cradled panel mounted to 16" x 16" on another cradled panel painted black. Contact me for more information. Prints and other printed items made from this piece are available in on Fine Art America.

Storm Drain with Autumn Leaves and Shadows, New Oil Pastel Painting

Storm Drain with Autumn Leaves and Shadows, © 2018 Sheryl Karas

My latest oil pastel. I'm exploring the abstract in "real" life . . . except this isn't real. I combined 2-3 photographs, all done in the same photoshoot, to come up with a starting place for this piece. This is a progression of the pieces I did to break out of artist's block by looking for things to paint in my own boring apartment complex. I loved this rusty storm drain with bits of dead leaves stuck in it but I wanted it much more colorful. I also like another storm drain that I used in an earlier painting and thought I'd combine them. I guess it appeals to the graphic artist in me. It was also a challenge and great fun to draw and paint, despite using the composite photo as an underlayer. I eliminated and added things as I painted, tried to see inside the original photograph on my computer to emphasize what I saw there. Fun, fun, fun!

Update: I just got this piece into the National All-Media Juried Show at the Chico Art Center! It starts September 7th and runs through the end of the month.

SOLD !!!  Prints and prints on canvas are available on Fine Art America.

Awareness (Berries, Leaves and Flower Buds)

Awareness -- © 2018 by Sheryl Karas

I'm finding working with oil pastel very challenging but fun! This is my latest. I'm calling it "Awareness" because it's what I became aware of AFTER I tripped on the raised up sidewalk because I was lost in some internal drama! I'm exploring the intersection of multiple images lately in some of my work. I'm interested in the multiple levels of reality we can be aware of if we're paying attention at all, the variety of impressions our brains pick up on whether we're consciously aware or not. In this case it was the sidewalk, the sky, overhanging branches, berries, leaves and flower buds.

Contact me about the original. Prints and prints on canvas are available on Fine Art America.