Summerville artist Cheryl Considine creates paintings that feel like a deep breath of Lowcountry air—peaceful, joyful, and full of light. Cheryl’s intuitive style, in both her watercolor and acrylic paintings, captures the calm beauty of flowers and coastal landscapes. She finds peace and purpose when painting and wants to share this sense of joy, calm, and connection with collectors through her work.

After decades of living and working in the Northeast, she and her husband moved to Summerville, where she now proudly calls home and has rediscovered her creative voice. Visit Art on the Square Gallery in downtown Summerville to experience Cheryl’s soothing originals, affordable prints, and hand-painted ornaments that bring the serenity of the South home.

Rediscovering Art—and Herself

Cheryl Considine started drawing and painting in early childhood and took as many art classes as she could throughout her education. She graduated from Rhode Island School of Design with a BFA in Illustration and then worked in the party goods and home decor industry for over 30 years. She started as an entry level artist and grew with the company to become an art and production director before starting her own art and design business.

While her career path always involved working with art and artists, her own artwork was put to the side for too many years. That all changed after Cheryl and her husband Tim moved to Summerville in 2018 and she started painting for herself again in 2020.

She was accepted as an associate artist at Art on the Square Gallery, at its Nexton location in 2021, and was just thrilled to be in a gallery for the first time. Since then, her artwork has grown and evolved, as well as her role in the gallery. She is now proud to be one of the artist/owners at the gallery’s new location on Hutchinson Square in historic, downtown Summerville.

Inspiration

Cheryl likes to paint what makes her happy and her favorite things to paint are flowers and waterscapes. For many years, gardening was her only creative outlet, and she loved to watch all the different stages of growth, from seeds to buds to full bloom. She now brings some of these details to her floral paintings, in a style that combines a loose expressiveness with a touch of realism.

Her waterscapes and coastal landscapes are more ethereal and are inspired by both the New England coast where she grew up, as well as the beautiful Lowcountry scenery where she now calls home. The water has always been a source of comfort, calm and wonder to her, and she tries to capture these feelings in her more atmospheric paintings. She prefers to paint the emotions and memories of a coastal scene or landscape rather than an exact replica.

An Intuitive and Evolving Process

Cheryl describes her artistic style as “intuitive, evolving, and inquisitive.” Since she started painting again in 2020, her artwork has evolved from random exploration in a very loose expressive style to painting with more intention, purpose and detail. She still paints intuitively, without a lot of planning, in both watercolor and acrylics.

“I get distracted easily if I spend too much time on planning every detail, so I usually just start painting and let things develop naturally. Sometimes this works, and sometimes I end up with colorful scrap paper. But I always learn something from it, even from mistakes.”

Her daily painting practice is very important to her and almost like therapy as it “helps ground me and takes me to a place that brings me so much joy and peace.” They are not always finished paintings, sometimes they’re just small sketches or color exploration but she loves every part of this process that has helped her become more confident as an artist.

Cheryl says her growth as an artist is also due to the friendships and inspiration from other artists at the gallery. “This is the first gallery I’ve ever been a part of and I’m so proud of what we have accomplished. It’s truly such a privilege to be part of this gallery family and to exhibit with so many talented artists here”. 

Sharing the Joy

Teaching watercolor classes has evolved into a passion for Cheryl to help others find a way to slow down and find creativity and joy. She tries to “demystify“ watercolor so that students can understand the techniques and continue painting on their own, rather than rush to just finish a pretty painting. “I tell students that it isn’t a race to finish, I would rather each person go at their own pace and take their supplies home so they can continue painting and learn to enjoy the process”.

She has many repeat students that say they are so relaxed when they paint and have started to notice little details in everyday life, like different flower shapes, and how light can change colors. She believes it’s little things like this that help people slow down and enjoy the beauty all around them.

For Collectors

Cheryl is happy to paint any size artwork, and her work includes prints, cards, and small originals starting at $25. She offers larger, one-of-a-kind paintings for collectors looking for something truly special. Cheryl also creates hand-painted ornaments that have become collector keepsakes. “It makes my heart happy to know that customers continue to add them to their holiday tradition every year.”

You can experience Cheryl Considine’s peaceful, light-filled artwork at Art on the Square Gallery in downtown Summerville. Each piece is a reminder to breathe, to notice, and to celebrate the beauty that’s always around us.