"Catch and Release" - Sheryl Stalnaker

20" x 20" Framed Oil Painting

Painter Sheryl Stalnaker finds joy in depicting saltwater life and the beauty of her surroundings. Capturing the feeling and energy of a scene in her paintings, Sheryl often starts a painting on location. Whether it’s a marsh and tidal river in the low country, an Atlantic coastline, or the rapids of a freshwater river, Sheryl captures the light, movement, feeling and energy of every scene with her paint.

“I paint with both a palette knife and a brush,” says Stalnaker. “I’ve always been attracted to art where you can see definitive marks from the artist’s hand. It has an energy that I’m drawn towards.” She uses paint straight from the tubes, sometimes mixing cold wax medium to add extra texture. “I do go through a lot of paint,” she says.

Stalnaker has shown her award-winning works in galleries along the East Coast, along with juried shows such as Piccolo Spoleto in Charleston, the Southeastern Wildlife Exposition, Artfields, and the Telfair Museum of Art Fair in Savannah.

The Charleston City Paper said in a review of Stalnaker’s paintings, “Plein air painting is a genre that seems to be saturated with talented local artists… but one particular artist who has set herself apart is Sheryl Stalnaker.”

She is a graduate of the University of Washington. Her work is in corporate collections including Duke University Hospital, Vibra Hospital Charleston, First Capital Bank, Tidelands Bank, and in private collections across the U.S., England and as far away as Japan.