Cheryl Crane-Hunter doesn’t just make art—she listens for it. Her work is shaped by a deep awareness of the natural world and a lifelong grounding in art education. Over the years, her practice has become a kind of spiritual dialogue. Her paintings are quiet but full of presence, grounded in intuition, and alive with meaning. Through her brush, she explores the unseen, the symbolic, and the emotional layers that lie beneath the surface of things.
Nature, light, and spiritual energy are constant threads in her work. Cheryl often paints by the sea, connecting with moon cycles and tides, letting her surroundings guide the rhythm of the canvas. Her process is open and trusting—less about planning, more about allowing. She paints as if following a thread from another place, with a sense that something larger is speaking through her. In this way, her art becomes a meditative act—both for herself and for those who experience it.
“As the world in the 5th dimension seems to be crumbling around me… I am answering a calling.”
That’s how she frames her creative path today. She doesn’t separate life from art. It’s all part of one current. She refers to herself as a “love and light spiritual painter”—a phrase that speaks not only to her intent, but to the energy behind the work. It’s not about decoration. It’s about healing. She selected three recent paintings that show how her work speaks through composition, color, and layered symbolism.
The first, Full Moon on Topsail Island, is painted in a narrow range of tones—soft, muted, and monochromatic. The simplicity of the palette allows something else to emerge: mood, meaning, and message. Cheryl describes this piece as a call to spiritual helpers—a moment of reaching out to the invisible world. The moon takes center stage, not just as a visual form, but as a symbol of trust, intuition, and quiet guidance. The sea below it reflects and holds space, reminding us that clarity often rises through stillness. The painting hums with presence, offering a space to listen inward.
In The Dance, she brings a different kind of energy. The brushwork here is looser, more playful. The painting explores the mythical idea of Lemuria, often thought of as a lost civilization grounded in peace and spiritual harmony. But Cheryl treats Lemuria less as legend and more as invitation—a way of seeing the world not through division, but through light. The composition moves gently between shadow and brightness. Transparent washes give form without fixing it. There’s a sense of shifting, of becoming. In many ways, the painting feels like a metaphor for her process: a dance between what’s seen and what’s felt.
The third piece, Over the Rainbow, carries deep personal meaning. Cheryl created it while her father was dying of cancer. As he neared the end of his life, she found herself reflecting on love—how it’s the only thing we truly bring into the world, and the only thing we take with us when we go. The painting is full of flowing blues, poured and swirled across the surface. The color moves like water, like breath, like time. There’s no edge between earth and sky, only a sense of passage. Over the Rainbow was exhibited at the Wilmington airport as part of a show titled Implants, focused on the theme of people relocating and planting roots in new places. For Cheryl, the painting holds both her father’s transition and her own quiet grounding.
These three works don’t try to explain. They don’t aim to impress. Instead, they offer space—space to feel, to reflect, to simply be. Cheryl’s art encourages a kind of still attention. It’s less about answers and more about presence.
In a world full of noise and speed, her paintings ask us to slow down. To watch the moon. To notice the tide. To follow the trace of a brushstroke and see where it leads. Through color, light, and movement, Cheryl Crane-Hunter reminds us of something simple but essential: we are here, we are connected, and there’s beauty in the listening.
