Sherry Strickland Martin / Roots Run Deep

For professional artist and art educator, Sherry Strickland Martin, her work has come full circle in the last 10 years. She has returned to her roots, so to speak. Her medium, watercolor, continues to present her with ever-changing technical challenges while, simultaneously, inspiring her with its luminosity and reflective quality. Indeed, what first draws Martin to paint what she sees around her is directional sunlight as it streams through and around a scene, creating patterns, changes in hues and rhythms of light and shadow. The Lowcountry of South Carolina inspires the artist’s representational subject matter daily, so much so that she rarely paints anything outside of it. In addition to traditional watercolor, Martin works in mixed media, a medium she deems her alter ego. Unlike the quiet solitude her watercolors evoke, Martin’s mixed media pieces allow her to let loose, stretch her boundaries and experiment.

Roots Run Deep is an exhibition of Martin’s traditional watercolors and mixed media works that speak to her return to painting what nurtures her soul: that salt air, that plough mud and the sweet smell of oyster beds that line South Carolina’s beautiful coast. For Martin, this precious place never leaves you, no matter where you go. It always brings you home, where roots run deep.

Horry County (SC) native, Sherry Strickland Martin, is a visual artist specializing in traditional watercolor and mixed media in addition to being a visual arts teacher at St. James High School in Murrells Inlet, SC. She grew up in the Upstate of South Carolina and received her BA in Studio Art at Limestone College in Gaffney, SC (1982). Martin began her art career by producing work for galleries and juried museum exhibitions as well as teaching workshops and doing commission work throughout the Carolinas. While living and working in Hilton Head, SC, in 2001, she incorporated her art company, which produces artistic designs for a multitude of products, including but not limited to fabrics, note cards, prints and serving ware for international buyers, like Target, Stein Mart and a host of others. Martin has also done a considerable amount of sports art for athletes associated with the PGA (Professional Golfers Association), MLB (Major League Baseball), NFL (National Football League), NBA (National Basketball Association) as well as collegiate sports teams.

In 2003, Martin found herself called to a second career—teaching visual arts at the high school level in Bluffton, SC. Working toward her teacher certification, she wrote a visual arts curriculum for a new school of 1,300 students rooted in instructing within teachers’ specific fields of expertise. Martin moved to Myrtle Beach in 2007 after a bout with breast cancer to be closer to family. In April 2009, she lost her home and most her art–over 300 works– in a wildfire. “I’ve had a lot of catching up to do to begin showing my work in Myrtle Beach,” says Martin. “I have been working on that diligently with a refocus on producing work that speaks to me and challenges my skill level.” It wasn’t until 2014 that Martin started exhibiting her paintings again. That year, the South Carolina Watermedia Society awarded her “Signature Member in Excellence” in their annual juried exhibition. In addition to teaching, Martin continues to paint professionally and regularly shares her work with her students as a teaching aid and for inspiration.