McGraw, Sherrie

Sherrie McGraw left her home in a small oil town in Oklahoma at age 23 to study at the Art Students League of New York. The League provided the most important influence in her development — exposure to chiaroscuro painting in the tradition of Rembrandt and Velasquez through the instruction of David A. Leffel. McGraw worked as a night guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, studying there until she left to paint full time in 1980. Seven years after leaving school, the League asked her to be an instructor, which led to her teaching there until her 1992 move to Taos, New Mexico.