by Candice Russell

SPECIAL TO THE EASTSIDER

 "I didn't choose to be a painter," writes Victoria Sheridan in an artist's statement. "Painting chose me."

The statement reflects the almost mystical process of creation that grips the very talented.  From the drawings she made as a child to the oil paintings she has done for the past 20 years, this award-winning artist has found painting to be a perfect fit.

Sheridan's current figurative work, represented in four drawings and six paintings, is on view at Florida Collectors Gallery in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea through June 15. She also will have a piece in the upcoming "Controversy" exhibition, from June 13 to July 3, at Broward Art Guild, 530 NE 13th St. in Fort Lauderdale;  (954) 523-4824.

Pencil studies of the human figure and oil paintings derived from those drawings are in Florida Collectors Gallery "They're all nude women," Sheridan explains. "I go to a life drawing class on Tuesday night at the Broward Art Guild to paint nude models. I also take a life drawing class at the Boca Raton Museum of Art."

Using life and photographs as prompts to her muse, this Boca Raton resident and native of Buenos Aires, Argentina, stresses that she's not a literal interpreter of what she sees. Memories inspire her as much as the need for an artfully arranged composition.

"My paintings are affected by feeling," says Sheridan. "I like things that say a little about me, about life, that there's some mystery. They say people paint themselves, though not necessarily through self-portraits.

"If paintings are vulnerable, they open themselves to others, who can read their own experience into them. That way, paintings take on a life of their own. That's joy for me. Then I think a painting is successful. "She admits the process doesn't always work. Some paintings are started with great promise abandoned when the elements fail to come together. Sheridan says there are some paintings she sets aside for as long as a year and then never goes back to them. Her successes, though, are worth celebrating, including a recent solo exhibition at the Boca Raton Community Center and participation in "Inspirations 2002" at the Cornell Museum in Delray Beach. Other shows to her credit are the 2001 Hortt 42nd Competition and Exhibition and the 49th Annual All-Florida Juried Competition at the Boca Raton Museum of Art in 2000.

Oil is her preferred medium. "It takes a long time to develop a painting with many layers," she says. "Oil almost gives me the feeling that I'm doing something that lasts." She cites the "translucence and depth" of oils.  Still her repertoire are haunting paintings of empty interiors, beautiful houses with arched windows and open doors. Only flow she's adding figures to these paintings, along with trademark symbols of birds, representing the Holy Spirit and freedom, and cats, which she calls a female symbol.