Sheryl has lived in the Westshore since age 7 and is a 4th generation Victorian; first in her family to graduate University. She took the Visual Arts program at UVIC earning her BFA in Painting in the early 80s. She has shown and sold in the Sooke and Sidney Fine Art Shows as well as Metchosin ArtPod, Coast Collective, Sooke Arts Council and Arts and Culture Colwood galleries. She is currently a volunteer art show coordinator and a Director on the board at the Arts and Culture Colwood Centre at 170 Goldfinch RD. Sheryl works primarily in Water-soluble oil on canvas with an underpainting of acrylic. Trees, beaches and local scenes have been a common theme but since retirement Sheryl has been exploring more abstract themes and combining abstract with landscape for a more bold and expressive brushwork style. Vincent Van Gogh, Emily Carr and the Group of Seven have had strong influence in her painting.
Statement‘I Always Thought that I’d See You Again’ Artist Statement – Sheryl Parsons
Last August 2021, the morning after we arrived home from 2 days away for the burial of our 5 week old granddaughter Charlotte, I woke with James Taylor’s ‘Fire and Rain’ in my head. I’d always loved that old sad song and on that day it gave me some solace. I remember thinking ‘Hmmm, I wonder why this song came to me?’
Later that day, our son sent the link to the video of the burial service and there i was, the instrumental version of Fire and Rain. It seemed a miraculous moment for me because on the day, bitter sadness controlled all my senses and I did not remember even hearing music. But I realized my subconscious gave me an almost tangible way to remember an incomprehensible event for our family.
The painting shows our family during the procession to the grave site. As we walk through this dark corridor, our son holds out his arms to guide and protect his wife and Charlotte’s three siblings toward the future. In our minds, the fire of our emotions of loss, rage overhead and even though it’s a sunny August day, the reality of her death bites like bitter wind and rain at our backs.
“I always thought that I’d see you again, dear Charlotte.”
