Spirit Animal Prints

Sherry Bryant, Animal Artist

1946-2015

Sherry Bryant named the animals she painted. They were as personal to her as her friends and relatives.

Chico the roadrunner, Saul the great horned owl, Francisco the white buffalo, Antonio the black mustang, Salomon the jaguar, Romeo the bighorn ram...

Many of the creatures she portrays visit her at her Tucson studio adjacent to Saguaro Park West National Park.

“A bobcat came up to my window and stared in at me, and a coyote pressed his nose against the glass. Javelinas are always knocking over the bird bath.”

She called her paintings “Spirit Animals.” Her media were watercolor, acrylic and collage, featuring animals and cave art.

“When I see a flicker in the eyes of my painting or feel the breath from its nostrils, I know it has taken on a life of its own. I see the creature from the inside out, and take the viewer to dimensions beyond what is known. I’m concerned with the spirit of the subject more than its anatomical details.

The photo shows Sherry as a teenager with her horse, Misty. She said that she preferred her horse to boys. At least she did then!

“As an intuitive painter, my goal is to expose the animal’s inner light, preferring feathers, hide and fur to skin, and yet there is a human quality to the creatures I paint—a look in the eyes, a turn of the head.

“Although my work is about texture, transparency, fluidity, and softness, it is also about a moment, a mood, an ephemeral feeling, and most of all, the animal’s soul, its spirit, its divine being, and nature’s pure and primitive power.”

Self-taught, Sherry had sold her work throughout Arizona, California and New Mexico for more than thirty-five years.

She had exhibited at many venues including the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum, Tubac Center for the Arts, Mountain Oyster Contemporary Western Art Show, Horse HeART juried show, Lake Tahoe, Nevada, (“People’s Choice Award”), Manos Gallery art competition, Tubac, AZ (“Best of Show”), Santa Barbara, CA, Museum of Natural History art show, and the Tucson Botanical Gardens Art Gallery in a monthlong one-woman show.

Sherry was an artist-teacher at the Drawing Studio of Tucson, Arizona, where she taught classes in watercolor and creativity.

In 2013, Sherry spent three weeks in France studying animals depicted in cave art. This enriching experience influenced her work.

She was a Signature member of the Southern Arizona Watercolor Guild (SAWG).

You may purchase prints of Sherry's work on this website.

However, Sherry's original watercolor and acrylic paintings, prints and Notecards are available at The Mesquite Grove Gallery in Patagonia, AZ, which has represented her work for more than a decade. (520) 400-7230.