“We live on a tidal cove in Friendship. Each morning a complete surprise awaits me as I walk around the corner of my studio down on the shore. What time, tide, and weather have done to stun me once again. This small spot of coastline, rocks, water, mudflats, and islands floating in the pristine air, hold the essence of the world.” – Cicely Aikman
CICELY AIKMAN was born in the western, desert mountain country of El Paso, Texas in 1923. She lived there until the age of six, and spent the rest of her childhood in Los Angeles. These formative environments: bare high mountains, desert vistas, and the pounding surf of the Pacific Ocean all left indelible impressions on her and her work. In elementary school, she read the biography of artist Rosa Bonheur, which became a pivotal, formative moment when she realized women could be successful artists.
She went to high school in Washington D.C. and then studied art at the Corcoran School of Fine Arts (1938-40), the University of Chicago (1940-42), and the Art Student League with mentor Morris Cantor (1942-1946). On her time at the Art Student League, Aikman reflected: “This was a serious art education–our only regret was that due to World War ll, we could not go to Europe, in particular to Paris to see, first-hand, the works of Picasso and Matisse.”
Back in New York, Aikman began showing her work along with her downtown peers, among them Lois Dodd, Rudy Burkhardt, and Gretna Campbell, at the Pyramid Gallery. In the forties and fifties, Aikman painted winters in the city and summers in Provincetown and later in Maine. While continuing to paint, she raised her son and held down various odd jobs to earn enough money to live on. She exhibited in New York with Green Mountain Gallery, the Blue Mountain Gallery, the Artists’ Gallery, the Westbeth Gallery, Pyramid Gallery, and with the Provincetown Art Association.
After the war, Aikman was an avid traveler. She went to Italy by boat with her two-year-old son, Paul, and lived in bohemian circles with like-minded friends. She lived in Peru from 1956-1957, where she taught English and traveled all over the region, including Ecuador and Chile. Other trips included the Greek Isles, Turkey, and countless journeys to France to visit her son Paul, who made Paris his home.
Aikman worked as a librarian at the Hayden Planetarium of the American Museum of Natural History, there she met Fred Scherer, a fellow artist, and they married in 1969. In 1973, Aikman and Scherer moved to Friendship, Maine, where they lived for 32 years and adopted and raised Fred’s grandchild, Kim Scherer. Aikman maintained a vigorous studio practice, splitting her time between Friendship, Maine and the Indian River in Florida. Aikman enjoyed the less frenetic pace of exhibiting in Maine, and with a group of fellow artists, she formed the Waldoboro Gallery, an arts cooperative in Waldoboro, Maine. In 2005, Aikman and Scherer moved to Brattleboro, Vermont where they continued to live and work until both of their passings in 2013. Aside from painting, Aikman loved classical music, literature, reading and writing poetry, and writing her memoirs.
From 1990 to present, Aikman has been represented by Caldbeck Gallery. Her work has been exhibited in numerous galleries and museums, including the Farnsworth Art Museum, The Portland Museum of Art, the Center for Maine Contemporary Art, and Roundtop Center for the Arts.