Cherie Peters
Cherie Peters was the Artist in Residence at Cunningham Falls State Park (CFSP) September 6-20, 2025. Cherie is a 3-dimensional artist from Osage Beach, Missouri. Cherie has been practicing her art of 30 years and has taught K-12 to diverse populations for 12 years. While in residency, she produced and demonstrated encaustic painting using melted beeswax and pigment to produce unique pieces. Cherie did three presentations while in residency. September 7th at the CFSP Concessions Area at South Beach, she presented a program “Encaustic in the Wild” and shared her nature-inspired artwork while demonstrating the ancient technique of encaustic painting. She started with a thin piece of wood which she covered with two coats of melted beeswax and damar resin. With a heat gun she melted the wax into the wood. While the wax was still pliable, she layered on bits of leaves, burlap, flowers, etc. and then applied more wax. She did some engraving into the wax and applied liquid tar, then rubbed it in and wiped away the excess to create more definition to the lines and give an antique type finish. On September 14th she led an Encaustic Collage Workshop at the Delaplaine Arts Center. There the students had to chance to create two collages of their own. On September 20th she led A Nature-Zine Workshop where the participants crafted simple nature journals after doing a quiet observation of the park trails.
This is the art piece that Cherie installed at the Manor Area of CFSP. Strung from a piece of drift wood are small boats made from the pages of the park brochures. Small twigs form the oars. The boats are preserved with the encaustic process and ae reminiscent of all the small crafts that ply the waters of the lake at CFSP.