Artist Focus: Cindy Sorley-Keichinger

Cindy Sorley-Keichinger grew up on a farm in East Central Alberta, Canada. Family vacations were always at national parks doing lots of trail hiking with field guides in hand to learn all about the environment. “There was no such thing as walking in ignorance of our fellow inhabitants of the planet,” Sorley-Keichinger says. “Naturally, that led to wanting to draw and paint nature.”

Swallow Dream, acrylic, 18 x 9”

She is a self-taught artist and lives on a grain farm with her husband and their now-expanded family that includes grandchildren. With the encouragement of her husband, she continues to paint what she loves. She works in acrylic, gouache and oil, and she likes the punch she gets with these paints. When doing her paintings, she enjoys researching the animal and habitat so she can portray it properly and include its environment so others may get to know the subject. Wildlife is her favorite subject followed by landscapes, as there is never any boredom with ever-changing subject matter.

Conflict of Interest, acrylic, 16 x 16”

The artist is a member of several guilds, including a fellow of the American Artists Professional League, a signature member of both the National Oil & Acrylics Painters’ Society and Artists for Conservation, and an associate of both the Women Artists of the West and Society of Animal Artists. She is also a member of the International Society of Acrylic Painters and the International Guild of Realism. Sorley-Keichinger will be in the virtual 2023 Artists for Conservation Show in Vancouver this fall. —