Eileen Terrell

I grew up in a blue-collar neighborhood in a small crowded rowhouse with 5 sisters in Philadelphia PA, I would escape to any open spaces I could reach by foot or bike. Laying down for hours in a field or sitting against a tree to watch the play between sun and shadow. I would dream of my escape to open spaces, where the color of sun and shadow could be captured as easily a taking a breath. My mind constantly painting the scenes before me. I believe this is why I never use a sketch book because I already have a vision of my finished painting in my head even before I put paint to canvas.

Money was tight and was not wasted on such frivolous things as art supplies, so I started working at the local bingo hall to make money for supplies. While in grade school I had won an art contest from the local newspaper to see the Ice Capades, this is the time in my life when my parents had noticed that “this artist stuff” might become serious.  I had continued working odd jobs and saving money for tuition to attend a school of art. Unfortunately, I could only save enough money to go to a small advertising trade school. My art was seen as unmarketable due to my unique style and not suitable for advertising to the masses, but I graduated from the trade school. I freelanced around for several years but became very frustrated and stifled by the limits imposed on my art. I then abandoned the world of advertising but not my way of looking at the colors of sun and shadow and I continued to paint my paintings in my head. I started taking biology and mathematic classes at the community college so that I may pursue a career as a nurse. I excelled in this field by bringing my unique perspective to a patient’s situation and care. After several years and many starts and stops of attempting to create again, I started to release the paintings I had painted in my head in the form of oil paint on canvas.

Time passed, my children had grown up and out, I found myself wanting to truly get into the practice of painting more regularly. I began to take classes at The Woodmere Museum. The instructor encouraged my unique style. With this positive reinforcement the paintings that had been locked in my head began to flow like a great flood. I began to enter juried exhibitions with positive results, and this has set free even more creativity. Despite these recent accolades, the art of placing brush to canvas is still about immersing the viewer into my vision of the colors and shapes created by sun and shadow.