Cheryl won the QPRC Regional Art Awards Exhibition Award in 2017 with her chestnut painting (from Hoskinstown’s Tweenhill Chestnuts). Since then she has been travelling around our Shire, visiting her regular haunts but always keen to explore new places. She has discovered nature reserves and conservation areas. Passionate locals have welcomed her to their properties, showing her the ‘fruits’ of their labours – from pepper berries to cider apples to honey, and beautiful local wildflowers. Along the way she has also found fascinating insects, which are often overlooked.
 
Cheryl painted many of the natural treasures that she discovered across the Shire in her signature delicate watercolour style. Her aim was to  ignite curiosity in others with her paintings and accompanying stories. For example, the beautiful Monga Waratah near the Clyde Mountain is very accessible via the “Waratah Walk”. Nearby is a boardwalk at Penance Grove, with its ancient plumwoods and Gondwanian landscape. In and near Queanbeyan are nature reserves with flowers you may have never seen before. Cheryl wants to impart the thoughts she carries with her every day: wherever you are you can find something interesting and unexpected, if you take the time to look.

Cheryl also wrote about her visits, and researched some of the species she painted. ​Click here for the 'stories behind the paintings'.

I have had a lot of positive feedback from my solo exhibition "Botanical Capital" in March this year. It was such a learning experience for me as there was a lot of research involved, both on the history side and travelling around Canberra, sometimes to places I hadn't been before. I decided to make a video which includes not only photographs of the paintings from the exhibition, but also some of my reference photographs, and some pics I took along the way. I thought this might be a good way for people who couldn't get to the exhibition to have a bit more insight into my work. Apologies for the reflections in the glass. Thanks to my family for their support during the lengthy (approx 2 years) exhibition preparation, and to my son Jack for helping me put this video together.

My Eucalyptus tereticornis Forest Redgum has been accepted into the Florilegium of the Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney. The Florilegium paintings will be exhibited at the Sydney Living Museum in 2016 and at Kew Gardens, London in 2018. There is also a beautiful publication featuring all of the paintings in the Florilegium. More information on the Florilegium is available here.
​Image copyright Sydney Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust.