Reception: Thursday, April 3, 6–8 pm
As the title implies, Sharon Duffy Verhoef has done most of the small intimate paintings in her new show from life — in changing times. Set against the paradigm shift caused by the 9/11 attacks on her home city and the sad uncertain times in which we find ourselves, Duffy Verhoef's own life has been dominated by change. Her new awareness of life's inevitable cycle of loss and renewal has been accompanied by the reality of aging and life's vulnerability. In a few short years she has experienced personal grief with the death of a brother and the decline and death of her elderly mother. The transition of her husband's retirement has been augmented by major geographical relocation. The unsettled feeling in her life in recent years has caused her to "…crave to paint from a source, to experience the thoroughly absorbing and reflective quality of working from perception — from something in front of me." This eclectic group of works begin to reflect this craving.
Her self-portraits reveal a search for inner character or emotion as she explores the forms of the face, tightly framed by background. Portraits of her elderly mother realize relationship, old age, love and loss.
Duffy Verhoef's still lifes show an understanding of the relevance of objects in our life. She chooses them intuitively — seemingly for their personality — as a young child might choose a doll or stuffed animal. Disparate in form and origin they find themselves together in tightly cropped paintings that evoke memory and a sense of predicament.
One or two paintings of the suburban landscape describe the back yards of her new locale. Human elements such as a fragment of pathway, fence or roof lend a poignant feeling of isolation to the color and light of the clear air and green fecundity of this remote place.
Sharon Duffy Verhoef's new work continues to show her penchant for highly keyed colors, strong abstraction and the cropping of images. Yet working in a more conventional way, using light and color as a response to life and its changes, lends a new maturity to the work. It is informed, and she is able to draw upon her feelings of sadness, love, yearning, isolation, humor and hope — while painting what's in front of her.
These pictures mark the beginning of work that has "more to work with." We are excited to see where she will go from here.
A native of New Jersey, Sharon Duffy Verhoef, earned a BS degree at Skidmore College, an MA degree from Montclair State College and an MFA from Indiana University. After living in England and Tucson, Arizona, she and her husband have very recently moved to Auckland, New Zealand. This is her fourth Solo Exhibition at the First Street Gallery.