Douglas Sheran
Facia Obscura
Douglas Sheran worked at Creativity Explored from 1993 until 2008 where he would render his preferred subjects (numbers, figures and animals) in pencil, ink, pastels, acrylics, watercolors, and ceramics. facia obscura is a series of works in which the artist painted over female figures found in magazines. Gestural yet subdued, Sheran was able to capture the essence of the subject with minimal strokes. Also shown in this exhibit is a series of portraits of the crew of the Enterprise from Star Trek. Working in acrylic on sheets of acetate placed over reference images of the characters, Sheran arrived at an approximate yet expressive and singular version of each personage. These colorful images were then overlaid onto backgrounds of illustration board that the artist hand painted with washes of acrylic paint.
In addition to numerous exhibitions at Creativity Explored, Sheran's work was featured in BOOKWORKS: Text and Images from the Creativity Explored Archives, San Francisco Public Library - Main Branch in 2014, I Have Never Taken the Time to Really Look, Accident and Artifact, San Francisco, CA in 2013, and Paper!Awesome!, Baer Ridgeway Exhibitions, San Francisco, CA in 2010.