Light Space & Time Online Art Gallery is very pleased to announce that fine art photographer Cheryl Rau is the gallery’s newest featured artist. Cheryl Rau is a mid-life emerging artist who lives on the Southern Coast of Maine. Since 2010, her work as a documentary/fine art photographer has been selected for numerous regional, national, and international exhibitions. Key elements of her style are vibrant colors and movement, as much of her work explores the ideas of impermanence and transformation.

Cheryl found her passion for photography in her 40s when she purchased her first SLR camera. She explored a wide range of subjects and genres including landscapes, architecture, portraits of people with their pets, and documentary photo essays. During this developmental stage, she also began shooting a series of abstract images of reflections on water for fun, as she roamed around the working waterfront in Portland, Maine with her camera.

In 2012, on a whim she entered two images from this series – her first fine art body of work titled “Water Colors” - in a local contemporary art exhibition and was surprised when one was selected by the juror for inclusion in the show.

“Before that moment when I saw my name on the list of artists, I never considered what I was doing with my camera art or thought of myself an artist,” she recalls. “Yet when I stood in the gallery at the opening reception and saw my photograph hanging on the wall - next to amazing paintings, mixed media pieces, and sculptures – I knew that this was what I had been searching for.”

As a self-taught artist, she continues to create new images for the “Water Colors” series and has developed several new bodies of work during the past three years. Earlier this year while recovering from cornea transplant surgery on her right eye (the one that sees through the camera viewfinder) and unable to see well enough to shoot for several months, she began experimenting with digital collage as a way to create new art by combining multiple images shot in past years.

Cheryl has held professional positions in marketing and communications, event management, and training. She is a graduate of the photography program at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies (Portland, ME). She earned a bachelor of arts in Journalism & Communications from Point Park College (Pittsburgh, PA). Originally from Pennsylvania, Cheryl lived in the Washington, DC area for 15 years prior to relocating to the Maine coast.

Cheryl’s website is www.cherylrauphotography.com