Shelagh Cherak
Shelagh McHugh Cherak is a painter working mostly in oils and acrylics, whose varied art career explores different facets of modern life. After studies in Ontario, earning a Diploma at the Ontario College of Art & Design in 1985, and attending an Eric Fischl Master Class at Georgian College, Barrie, ON (1998), she returned to Calgary. She has worked as a watercolour and drawing instructor for the City of Calgary and for Extended Studies, ACAD, and as a graphic designer. In 2006, she completed her BFA at the University of Calgary.
In her personal work, her acrylic paintings were initially inspired by her own domestic scene and by the project of raising her young children, as well as by her environmental concerns – some works featured daily objects and appliances, underlining our dependence on electricity. Later, her themes widened to urban sprawl, illness and isolation. She painted aerial views of Calgary’s downtown, and in 2006 she was the Region of Alberta recipient of the BMO 1st Art! Award, for one of her Calgary cityscapes, The South Tower View.
Shelagh returned to her painting, after a hiatus, in 2014. Isolation continues as a theme in her figurative work. Her About Face series documents the festive Stampede culture in Calgary. Figures are seen from behind, captured through body language, gesture and attire. It is the viewer who is left to interpret these private, faceless moments. The series was shown at the Edge Gallery in Calgary in 2016.
Shelagh has always been interested in 21st-century pop culture and contemporary painting, and in modernist figurative artists such as Jean Paul Lemieux, Wanda Koop and John Hartman. Her goal is to keep painting relevant in Canada.
In her personal work, her acrylic paintings were initially inspired by her own domestic scene and by the project of raising her young children, as well as by her environmental concerns – some works featured daily objects and appliances, underlining our dependence on electricity. Later, her themes widened to urban sprawl, illness and isolation. She painted aerial views of Calgary’s downtown, and in 2006 she was the Region of Alberta recipient of the BMO 1st Art! Award, for one of her Calgary cityscapes, The South Tower View.
Shelagh returned to her painting, after a hiatus, in 2014. Isolation continues as a theme in her figurative work. Her About Face series documents the festive Stampede culture in Calgary. Figures are seen from behind, captured through body language, gesture and attire. It is the viewer who is left to interpret these private, faceless moments. The series was shown at the Edge Gallery in Calgary in 2016.
Shelagh has always been interested in 21st-century pop culture and contemporary painting, and in modernist figurative artists such as Jean Paul Lemieux, Wanda Koop and John Hartman. Her goal is to keep painting relevant in Canada.