Cynthia Herron

“For the Celtic people, nature was not matter, rather it was a luminous and numinous presence which had depth, possibility and beauty.” -- John O’Donohue

Cynthia Herron’s paintings reflect an early interest in nature and being outdoors since at the age of six she would experience thunderstorms from her Ohio backyard. She has painted landscapes in Alaska, New Mexico, Arizona, eastern Canada and Oregon, often hiking for long stretches to take in nature’s wild places. She wanders forest, field and coast sketching the landscape with watercolor crayons and ink.

Later in the studio, she refers to colour sketches made in the field. She works with oil and cold wax on wood panels, building layers of color and texture. She alternately draws with thick paint sticks and thin grease pencils, sometimes scraping away, sometimes building up the paint. Her abstract images bring the wildness, color and poetry of nature to viewers.

Cynthia lived in the American southwest for twenty-five years, then moved to Oregon in 2004. She received her BFA in painting from Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada, a Teaching Certification in 1994 from Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona, and her MFA in painting from The University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 2003. Since 1995 she has taught painting and drawing at the university level and currently teaches foundation classes at Chemeketa Community College in Salem. Her paintings and collages have won awards in regional juried shows and can be seen at Freed Gallery in Lincoln City, and Fog Forest Gallery in New Brunswick, Canada.