Artist from Terrace captures Western wildlife in paint

Sometimes it takes awhile for an artist to know she really is one.

Mostly it’s about the old idea that artists don’t make any money and about the hard work of finding one’s worth.

Finally, passion takes over. That was the case for Western wildlife artist Cheryl Baughn King.

“When I finally embraced my art, I realized I was then who I was supposed to be,” King said. “Making art is a tough gig. One’s best work is done with emotion, so you ride a roller-coaster. The rewards are great, but it takes a lot of sweat and living through criticism. Every brush stroke is a tough decision.”

King’s work can be seen in two art shows opening Thursday, Nov. 17. She has a couple of multi-media pieces in the Schack Art Center’s annual holiday show, and she has a number of oil paintings in the Animal Magnetism exhibit at Cole Gallery in Edmonds.

King grew up in a family of five Baughn kids in Mountlake Terrace. She played sports, went fishing with her dad, loved her dog, took art classes and was recognized by her 1976 senior class at Mountlake Terrace High School as the class’s most talented female artist.

“I got my love of art and nature from my dad. He was a modern-day mountain man, and he was a good artist himself,” said King, 58.

At Edmonds Community College and the University of Washington, both of which she attended on sports scholarships, she studied art. Unsure about declaring an art major and what sort of payoff there might be later in life, she quit school and eventually started an upholstery business.

When King was in her 30s, her mother-in-law commissioned a portrait of Cheryl as a gift to her son and Cheryl’s husband, David King. Through the portrait artist, Cheryl King got involved with a painting group, first as a model and then as one of the artists.

At the (now closed) Art Shop in Edmonds, she studied with Julann Campbell, who had been a protege of a Russian impressionist Sergei Bongart. King “painted, painted and painted” with lots of oil color and bold brush strokes.

In 2006, she traveled to St. Petersburg to study and view Russian art.

“I realized that so many of the Russian artists were well-educated, but most had so little opportunity to show their work,” King said. “I decided I had to make up for my relative lack of education and take advantage of my opportunities.”

As most artists do, King first explored portraits, still life and landscapes.

It was with her Edmonds critique group (which has been together for nearly 10 years) and the group’s mentor by artist Ned Mueller that King came into her own.

“I can’t count the number of dog and cat portraits I have done to keep myself in oil paint,” she said. “When I decided on Western wildlife as my specialty, it all fell into place.”

Traditional oil on canvas or linen has given way recently to oil on aluminum over fused glass with elements of bone and wood. See examples this month at the Schack.

Along with Cole in Edmonds, King is affiliated with two Montana galleries — Going to the Sun Gallery in Whitefish and Winston Gallery in Great Falls.

“I am in this all the way now,” King said. “I truly believe that nobody chooses art for a life work. It chooses you. I denied it for so many years. I’m grateful for where I am today.”