Welcome to the world of Cherry Pickles
Discover the journey of Cherry Pickles.
Cherry Pickles has had an adventurous life. Born in Bridgend, Wales, she has travelled far and wide, from staying with Bedouins in the ancient city of Petra to living in divided Berlin in the early 1980s, where the historic "Zeitgeist" exhibition both excited and infuriated her.
Her first degree was in mathematics (Ulster University) before she changed course to study painting at the Chelsea School of Art and Design, between 1973 and 1977. She completed her postgraduate degree (1977-79) at the Slade School of Fine Art, before setting off on a series of residencies and travels that would fundamentally shape her artistic vision.
It was in Greece where Pickles first discovered the transformative power of self-portraiture, turning the mirror itself into a character in her work. Later, a conversation with actress Kathryn Hunter about her groundbreaking role as Richard III at the Globe Theatre inspired Pickles to create her first self-portrait as someone else, launching her into a career-long exploration of identity and performance.
Workshops in Italy with artists Gerhard Richter and Eric Fischl ignited her interest in moral provocation.
An extended residency at Altos de Chavon in the Dominican Republic introduced a different kind of subject matter and artists with fusing direct experience with the country's recent history , living with artists in Haiti, and more recent teaching in Antigua have expanded her narrative and painterly vocabulary.
Pickles principally makes landscapes and portraits, among them many self-portraits. She creates dramatic tableaux where she adopts the costumes and poses of cultural figures, often referencing them directly in her titles. She's fascinated by the mythology of the wayward male genius, channelling and subverting these archetypes through her own lens.
Her self-portrait (ref. image) referencing Dylan Thomas exemplifies this approach: she lounges in a room with vivid orange walls adorned with small drawings, head thrown back dramatically as she turns toward the viewer. A pencil, brush or cigarette dangles from her mouth while she grips a glass in her left hand, likely whisky, given the Thomas connection. In the top right corner is a skull sitting on a plinth, a perennial reminder of our mortality. A closely related work, "Night Self-Portrait in Dylan Thomas Costume Painting," pushes the drama further by including a pistol in her right hand.
Her method often involves theatrical re-enactment. During her residency at the prestigious Yaddo artists' colony in Saratoga Springs (where she was awarded the Philip Guston and Musa McKim scholarship), she researched earlier cultural figures who had worked there and, with fellow residents' help, staged scenes that might have been associated with these legendary artists.
A 2023 visit to Antigua, where she discovered Hemingway's Caribbean Cafe in St John's, inspired her painting "Double Crossing – Self-Portrait as Hemingway, as His 'Twin' Sister." She explained the mysterious title: "I read that Hemingway, despite his macho image, intermittently dressed as his 'twin' sister. It seemed to me that this made him a more sympathetic character." Through such work, Pickles continues to interrogate and reimagine the personas of cultural figures, creating a unique artistic practice that is part performance, part provocation, and entirely her own.
