Cheryl Accoom

Language: Kuuku Ya'u. Cheryl Accoom is the youngest Lockhart River Art Gang painter. At only 17 years of age she is attracting huge interest with several major Australian galleries representing her and her work. In early 2010 she was chosen to be the featured artist in the 'Unlock Art' segment of SBS TV's 'Living Black' program, great kudos for someone at the beginning of their artistic career. She has also been recently short-listed for the prestigious national Churchie Emerging Art Award 2010. She is touted as a rising star of the acclaimed Lockhart River art community and is renowned for her great gestural sweeping brush strokes in a beautifully composed colour palette. Her work will be going overseas to be exhibited in the USA in late 2010. "I was born in Cairns and I grew up in Lockhart with my Nana, I went to school in Lockhart, my great grandmother was a painter at the centre and she told me to come and paint at the Arts centre. So I started painting here and I liked it. My paintings are about colours and how those colours say what I am feeling. I would like to keep painting and I feel happy when people buy my paintings" - Cheryl Accoom