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This past year has brought on what Sue calls – with characteristically droll sunniness – “a lifestyle change.”

Sue Henry on her back porch. .

Last fall, Sue was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a cancer of the blood’s plasma. The illness and chemotherapy treatment take a toll, but when energy allows, she’s been painting. She’s focussing on it more, she says, than she did when she ran her sign shop. (A long-time institution in the Old Hotel, she closed the business earlier this year.)

A variety of Sue’s paintings on display at the Wit’s End. Among the new works is a triptych of a floating dock.

Several views of waves, including a triptych of New Zealand waves. Not all water is the same. On a trip to New Zealand 2 years ago, Sue says she found the water a different color from what sailors would find in the Bahamas.

With her “free time,” Sue says she’s also been doing more studying and reading about painting and painters. Near her couch and bed are books on Monet, Matisse, Gaugin and other Impressionists.

Sue says that while bed-ridden for periods of time, she’s recently read those bios with more intensity than she did as a student – “not just skimming over it all like you do in Art History.” In particular, she’s focused on what artists, such as Gaugin, had to say about their influences and how they worked.

Sue’s working table. Her paintings tap often in to what she calls, Bahamian colors. Teal, coral and yellow predominate. Some of those sun saturated colors from the islands even show up even in paintings of a rocky Maine shore.

Sue’s back porch window develops a water view with some of her paintings.

A native of Pennsylvania, Sue’s been living in Oriental for about 25 years and has drawn on the water here for ideas and inspirations for many of her paintings. Passing the harbor on the way back from a medical appointment one day this summer, she commented that so much of her heart and soul are linked to that part of town. She doesn’t get down there as much as she’d like right now, but has a backlog of photos and a sketch book of travels to Maine and New Zealand to tap in to. And she’s also looking to take on some new subject matter.

From Sue Henry’s mainsail series. It is part of the exhibition at the Wit’s End.

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Sue Henry’s work will be on display at the Wits End for several weeks. The opening reception is Saturday morning, August 30 starting at 9am.

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Posted Friday August 29, 2008 by Melinda Penkava