In Sharon Booma’s new works, vibrant fields of color burst across the canvas, supporting an expertly balanced structural harmony. Rich, multiple layers of pigment lend the paintings an immense depth, as if hidden regions lurk behind the surface—an effect heightened by Booma’s masterful control of shadow and light. Sections of steel, seamlessly incorporated into the paintings, add a sense of coolness and weight, helping to ground her more elusive forms.

Booma speaks of her work as being “representative of the effort to find a balance between the tangible materials that surround us and the ungraspable spiritualism that defines us as individually unique people.” It is this concept, perhaps, that causes us to respond to her paintings on such deep and visceral level. While the philosophy behind her work does not announce itself in literal terms, her images nevertheless have an irresistible intrigue, the ability to stir powerful emotions. 

Among Booma’s major influences is Henri Matisse, leader of the French Fauve movement, who believed color communicated meaning and who emphasized the bold use of vivid pigment in his work. For Booma, too, color represents that which is uncontained, full of life and joy. She moderates the emotions of her colors through the use of shape and form, exerting careful control over the ultimate mood of her paintings.

Another of Booma’s inspriations is Abstract Expressionism—particularly the work of Robert Motherwell, who simplified forms to concentrate on bold brush strokes and intense, focused color. Motherwell sought to combine the conscious world in which we live with the realm of the unconscious, linking many of his abstract forms to the conscious world through his titles. Like him, Booma views her abstractions as manifestations of her psyche: Using a language of pure color and exquisite composition, her paintings are like thoughts made visible.