I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Cindi Berry, an accomplished artist who creates beautiful, vivid oil paintings. We are proud to have Cindi as a guest artist at the White Rabbit Fine Art Gallery in Travelers Rest. When you view Cindi’s oil paintings it’s abundantly clear she is extremely talented. I also found her to be humble and approachable.
I’m thrilled to feature Cindi on our Artist Spotlight blog post today.
Cindi discovered and enjoyed drawing and painting as a young child. As an adult, since her career as an attorney kept her busy she did not begin to paint until 1999. When retirement offered the time she needed to pursue painting she was devoted to learning all she could about the art. Once she developed an interest in oils there was no holding her back. She studied, took numerous classes and learned from successful artists whose work inspired her. One of those artists was Robert Johnson, with whom she took in-person courses in Vienna, Virginia and a week long workshop at the Scottsdale Artists School. ( see more about Mr. Johnson by visiting his website at www.Robertjohnsonart.com). Another artist who influenced Cindi’s work was the late Richard Schmid, Master Oil Artist.
Today, Cindi paints from her home studio in Cliff’s Valley, where she has a first hand view of the beautiful mountainous scenery as well as the Saluda watershed and the wildlife who reside there. She marvels at nature’s offerings, including the occasional bear sighting.
Cindi’s repertoire of subjects is vast. She describes a pipe organ she saw in a beautiful church in Brussels, Belgium. The organ was a decorative golden color and Cindi couldn’t resist capturing the light that shone on the instrument. She tells me it took a long time to do just that but she didn’t stop until the project was complete.
Over time, Cindi’s focus has become more of a painterly style. She states “I’m not so focused on replicating everything I see in a setting or a photograph but more on creating a beautiful painting through the use of interesting brushstrokes, variety in color and shapes and determining when to soften edges and which ones to keep sharp.” “In other words” she continues, she’s trying to enhance what she sees and eliminate the “noise and other distracting elements.” One of her favorite paintings is of her nephew, she calls “The Sentinel” pictured here.
Whether she’s painting pets as portraits, wild animals or capturing the beauty of nature, capturing an animal’s essence, through the eyes, Cindi Berry is masterful, in this author’s opinion. But, you mustn’t take just my word for that. Cindi’s paintings are well worth the trip to the White Rabbit Fine Art Gallery in Travelers Rest. She believes art should be enjoyed, “it should make you happy and bring you a certain amount of joy” and indeed, Ms. Berry’s artwork does exactly that for the viewer.
See more by visiting CindiBerryFineArt.com
