Swift Spirit by Cheryl Freeman

Swift Spirit
Cheryl Freeman
Acrylic on gallery-wrapped canvas
40"h x 30"w x 1.5"d
2025

Swift Spirit is a celebration of motion, instinct, and untamed energy. Inspired by the native roadrunner, a creature built for speed, survival, and sudden bursts of brilliance, this piece speaks to what it means to move forward with fearless momentum.

Painted in a vivid palette of ember orange, turquoise blue, and flashes of gold and copper metallics, the background crackles like a West Texas summer. The roadrunner's pose captures both alert stillness and imminent movement, a quiet knowing before the dash. Intricate linework and textured layering echo traditional engraving styles while also invoking modern revival through pattern and punch.

This bird has seen fire, outrun it, and returned with ash on its feathers and purpose in its stride. In its wake: trails of survival, stories of grit, and a deep connection to the land that made it. With roots in the wild and a heart that races toward what's next, Swift Spirit honors both the creature and the spirit of those who run forward while carrying the fire of where they began.

Get to Know the Austin Artist:
My work embodies a style I call Radiant Expressionism, which is a fusion of vivid color, layered brushwork, and luminous metallics that express emotion through form and light. Drawing from the bold energy of the Southwest landscape and the symbolic resilience of my subjects – agaves, longhorns, wild horses – my paintings offer a contemporary take on natural beauty, grounded in strength, patience, and quiet power. I paint to honor the quiet strength and wild beauty of the land. Bold color is my language, and nature is my muse. In my pieces, I seek to capture the tension between grounded stillness and bursts of vivid energy. Whether I’m painting a longhorn, a wild horse, or a solitary succulent, my aim is always the same: to express presence, power, and grace. My hope is that the viewer can feel what I feel in the moment of creation – a deep connection to place, to story, and to something timeless.