Keefer recently took First Place at the 8th Annual Burnsville, NC Paint-Out for her 10×10″ oil painting of the Samuel Burns statue that adorns the town square.

That same day her plein air painting of Waynesville’s Laurel Ridge Country Club raised hundreds of dollars for Haywood Schools Arts Education Program, at the Quick Draw Auction in May.

This spring Keefer was juried into the Women Painters of the Southeast show in Greensboro, GA and is now represented by the Magnolia Art Gallery there. The Left Bank Gallery of Art, St. Simons, GA showcases Keefer’s low country scenes. In April Keefer was juried and selected to participate in Charlotte’s Mint Garden Tour. This month she will paint in the Black Mountain Art in Bloom Garden Tour, sponsored by the Black Mountain Center for the Arts. Keefer received an invitation to participate in the First Annual High Point Plein Air Festival in September, a juried event.

In between all this she is planning a painting excursion to Provence, where she will experience the same light and views as Matisse and Van Gogh. “I am not a colorist, but I do relate to the French Impressionists as a ‘modern’ impressionist and a painter whose work is inspired by atmospheric light on the landscape…or cityscape.”

Still, Buncombe County is home. This spring Keefer received local grant money to demonstrate plein air painting on the banks of the French Broad River for The Asheville Urban Landscape Project, a group of artists founded by fellow plein air painter Lisa Blackshear. If she happens to be painting in town…and indoors…Keefer can be found at her easel in her light and airy second floor studio in The Wedge.

“Painting lavender and mustard fields in Provence will be a dream come true! But painting in Asheville and Western North Carolina is my hearts desire, and spending studio time with a large cityscape, not battling the wind and weather can be just perfect on a rainy day.”

For more information about Cheryl’s paintings and workshops go to www.cherylkeefer.com

Cheryl Keefer
-Wedge Studios, 129 Roberts St. in the River Arts District
-Downtown at the Asheville Gallery of Art, www.ashevillegallery-of-art.com