Sherron Fergason Always Found a Way to Use Art

As a child, new Anderson Artists Guild member Sherron Fergason got into trouble for painting murals on her bedroom walls. She took a lot of art classes, and relatives still hang her early paintings in their homes, but when it was time for college, she bowed to her family’s wishes and completed bachelor’s degrees in psychology and sociology at the University of Southern California Irvine and in education at the University of California Long Beach. “My family wanted me to be able to support myself,” she said. “And they didn’t think that women really excelled in art careers.”

But during 18 years of teaching at both the elementary and middle school grade levels, she was able to incorporate art within the curriculum. Students were encouraged to use art to interpret words, places and dates using creative murals and learning centers. Math was very similar with creative diagrams and abstracts to interpret concepts like symmetry, charts and basic math.

Her career spanned California and Colorado, where she moved to care for her dad. When her husband retired, they moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, where Fergason taught art, acrylic, oil and sketching at her home studio for children and adults in small groups. In addition, she had two adult large art classes in oil and acrylics at the local Hobby Lobby.

For her own work, Ferguson prefers oils for a style she describes as “a softer version” of impressionism. She uses a “double limited palette” of ultramarine blue, red, and yellow with white and black. “The range of colors using a limited palette is quite extensive,” she said.

From her new home in Anderson, she is drawn to open landscapes. “I’m enamored with how grasses grow in the waters off the coast and the structures, abandoned or occupied, that work off the landscape.” She continues to develop with her art and her art businesses by participating in events, galleries and shows.

For more information, about Fergason, visit Instagram.com/SherronFergason.