(PCM+) Painter Sherri McGraw is chipping away at a new art form

Story by Steve Dye / Contributing Writer

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"When one is inspired to paint or draw a subject, that intense feeling seems, at times, fleeting. However, in order to paint an idea, one must hold onto that elusive vision if one hopes to bring it to fruition." -- Sherri McGraw

Though formed through studies at the Art Students League of New York,  where she later was hired as a drawing and painting instructor, Sherri McGraw's imagination originally emerged right here in Ponca City where she grew up with six siblings, the daughter of former Ponca City Country Club golf pro Gervis McGraw.

At the early age of four, McGraw knew she wanted to be an artist. By 1975, she was at the Goetz School of Art in Oklahoma City for several years under the tutelage of Richard Goetz, the director of the school, who inspired her direction. She also attended summer sessions held by Goetz in Arroyo Seco, New Mexico near Taos, where she and her fellow students ventured out into the desert landscape to paint colorful renditions of adobe ruins.