Sherry Harrington | Connections in Art and Life

Sherry Harrington paints Native American figures from the heart

By Elizabeth L. Delaney

“Art has always been a part of who I am,” says Texas artist Sherry Harrington, who has established herself as a consummate figure painter and student of Native American people and practices. The largely self-taught artist finds her strength in art and fulfillment in the connections that both inspire and result from her creativity.

As a child, Harrington was a voracious artist and, in her words, drew “anything that moved.” She had obvious talent, and requests for drawings were frequent. Her talent blossomed further when she was 12 years old and enrolled in a painting class with her mother. Not only did she hold her own among her adult classmates, but soon she was showing and selling her work. It was the beginning of art’s powerful presence in Harrington’s life—and her first realization of the connections it could bear, to her own creativity as well as to other people.

After graduating from high school, Harrington married and had two sons. She engaged in some pastel work during that time, drawing when she could fit it in amid raising her children. Her late husband, an art supply dealer, encouraged her to continue following her passion, and once their boys were older, Harrington fully embraced art-making again.

“I was obsessed,” Harrison says of her renewed pursuit. She dove in headfirst, revisiting the basic concepts she had learned as a student and broadening her knowledge and techniques through a great deal of research and observation of other artists’ works. “That was really my education: reading and following other artists,” she says.

After some time working on her own, Harrington attended a local workshop led by western artist Bruce Greene. Soon after, her work was featured in the Bosque Art Classic at the Bosque Arts Center in Clifton, TX, and earned several awards. On the heels of that success, Harrington attended a workshop in Taos, NM, with impressionist painter Kevin Macpherson. These experiences not only helped her to refine her painting style but also helped her connect with other artists who would continue to support and inspire her.

Harrington’s figurative work has since appeared in such renowned venues as the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in Fort Worth, TX, and the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, OK. She regularly participates in juried national exhibitions as well, including Cowgirl Up! at Arizona’s Desert Caballeros Western Museum and Night of Artists at the Briscoe Western Art Museum in San Antonio, TX. She especially loves participating in invitationals, where she can visit with collectors and share the stories behind her tenderly composed paintings.

“I love people, and I love connecting with people,” Harrington says. That sentiment is her mantra. To that end, the artist seeks to capture her subjects’ forms and expressions, as well as their inherent attributes, and share them with others.

She dedicates much of her artistic output to painting Native American subjects. This devotion formed many years ago as she was teaching herself to paint, scouring books and magazines filled with images of Indigenous cultures. She became so captivated by Native American traditions, and the ways in which various tribes use vibrant colors to express themselves, that she knew she had to convey her admiration through her art.

Harrington’s subjects consist overwhelmingly of Native American women and children in traditional dress. The lone or paired figures are often accompanied by animals and surrounded by cultural accoutrements and the open landscape. She particularly enjoys painting children, as she finds that they have a certain calm and peace about them. “I want to capture that innocence,” she says.

Not having the benefit of prior connections to any Native American individuals when she first set out to paint them, Harrington began to visit their land and meet some of the people whose culture had so inspired her. “It opened up a whole new world,” Harrington says. As time passed, she regularly traveled out West and to the Four Corners region to make new connections and foster the ones she already had.

“The Navajo have been really close to my heart,” Harrington says. One special friendship is with a Navajo family she and her late husband met years ago while visiting Chinle, AZ—the center of the Navajo Nation and gateway to Canyon de Chelly. In addition to informing her paintings, the family offers Harrington a firsthand glimpse of their culture and traditions, for which she is forever grateful. They continue to maintain their relationship, staying in touch year-round.

Harrington’s creative process begins when she encounters a potential subject whose countenance intrigues her. She simply approaches the person and shares her passion for art-making. Over the years, she has found models while visiting reservations, in restaurants, and even in the aisle of a grocery store.

When Harrison is ready to embark on a painting, she schedules a photography session with her subject. During the shoot, she takes numerous photos to capture the individual from various angles and in different lighting. She may make preliminary sketches as well. Harrington’s Native American subjects typically are dressed in traditional garb, which the artist sometimes commissions from her Navajo friends. She has had jewelry, baskets, and hand-beaded handbags made to add authenticity and ambiance to a scene.

Once Harrington returns to her studio, she begins the process of designing the painting’s composition—both by hand and via computer. The latter option affords her faster, broader visualizations of how all the elements will work together in two dimensions. Her favorite painting medium is oil on linen; she appreciates the rich, smooth results the combination produces.

Ultimately, Harrington finds fulfillment in the art experience as a whole—from inception to creation to connection with others. “What I learn from the people I meet and the connections I make, the people I’m painting … I’m learning their traditions and their culture,” she says. “All the things that we connect over and that I create the paintings from, I then take with me to the shows.” Harrington’s art serves as the thread that gently binds the subject, the artist, and the viewer together.

Case in point: Harrington recounts a discussion with a woman at an art exhibition who wanted to purchase one of her paintings—a portrait of a Native American girl named Frances. The potential buyer was inexplicably drawn to the painting, and as Harrington talked to her about the piece, she learned that the woman’s mother, also named Frances, had recently passed away. These symbiotic connections touch the artist deeply. “There are always those little things that make it really special,” she says.

While Harrington has harnessed—and elevated—her creative talent, technical ability, and unique style over the years, she believes it’s important to continue to improve, expand, and move forward as an artist. “If I’m not looking to improve, then I’m never going to grow,” she says. “I’m always looking for the next painting.” And the next connection.

representation
Big Horn Galleries (Cody, WY, and Tubac, AZ); www.sherryharrington.com.

This story appeared in the February/March 2023 issue of Southwest Art magazine.