RIVIERA HEIGHTS ? A meticulous attention to detail, influenced by the Bah ?”i Faith, gives the portraits of Duffy Sheridan a lifelike realism.
“It”s the focal center of my art in that it”s my perspective on the world,” he said.
Sheridan and his wife Jeanne, a ceramics and jewelry-making artisan, recently moved here from Arizona where, at the Desert Rose Bah ?”i Institute, they were in the process of building a school. They came to Lake County with his father, John Sheridan, to be closer to an area that his father is familiar with. “We got back to our roots, so to speak,” Sheridan said.
His home studio in Riviera Heights is full of several works in various stages of progress, beginning with pencil sketches and ending with portraits that have been completed and framed. “I find a particular fascination with recording what I find beautiful,” he said.
What most appealed to this viewer is that the texture of the subjects” clothing ? the raised surfaces of embroidered eyelet or the folds of a satiny drape — looked as though, if touched, they would “feel” the way they register to the eye. Sheridan said that unlike a photograph, which is focused to a particular depth with all other distances blurred, all of the elements in a painting that has been done in the realistic style are reproduced with the same clarity that would be seen by the eye.
One painting, of a woman shown standing in a running stream actually involved studio modeling. Sheridan used water from a hose to reproduce the current that would be found in the stream.
Another work, this a line drawing, displays a man and a woman gazing forward into the distance. Sheridan said it communicates the equality of men and women.
Bah?”u”ll?h, founder of the Baha”i Faith, said “The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens.” Duffy and Jeanne Sheridan have been members of the Bah ?”i Faith for 37 years. Sheridan”s career as a painter and the couple”s commitment to the Baha”i Faith has taken them all over the world — the Falkland Islands in the early 1970s to help the local Baha”i community and Samoa in 1986.
Sheridan said that the family”s travels allowed them to raise their sons, Maxwell and Eli, overseas where they gained valuable experience of not being in the majority among the cultures in which they were raised. John Sheridan is also a painter and had a painting of a ship in progress upon an easel in his room. Duffy Sheridan said his father taught him how to paint. “He challenged me to paint everything,” Sheridan said.
The Art Renewal Center has designated Sheridan a Living Master, “one who has the rare talent, experience and expertise to create great humanistic works of art that are seemingly executed with effortless perfection.” In 2005, Sheridan”s painting “Trust” earned a Chairman”s Choice Award in the second International ARC Salon Competition. The International Guild of Realism has also honored Sheridan. His painting “Promise of Renewal” earned Director”s Choice in its 2006 juried exhibition. His “Self Portrait” was also honored with the Director”s Choice Award in the guild”s 2005 juried exhibition. Information is available about the Lake County Baha”i community by calling 263-4105. Devotions take place at 11 a.m. on the first and third Sunday of each month.For information about Duffy Sheridan and to see his work, visit www.duffysheridan.com. Information can also be viewed on the Web sites of the Art Renewal Center, www.artrenewal.org/asp/database/art.asp?aid=1279; and the International Guild of Realism, www.realismguild.com/.
