| "Describing the landscape or the character in a loved one's face is an immeasurable privilege. Though I am a representational artist I like to allow the brush and color to have their own synergy. I make art for the sense of connection I have when what I've painted approaches my goal to create something which stirs someone's heart, prompts a nostalgic memory or inspires another to pause and appreciate the beauty that surrounds us."
Painting from life is a wonderful challenge -light is moving, plants are swaying, shadows are drifting, and I am impassioned to capture the spirit of the moment on canvas.
A pastelist and oil painter, Barbara thought she would follow in her grandmother and mother's footsteps and study art in college, but instead she earned a degree in classical voice performance, moved to Europe and sang as a lyric soprano in the professional opera houses of Germany. Eventually returning to America to raise her children, Barbara began to paint again, taking classes and workshops with several esteemed artists, including Kerry Dunn, Margaret Dyer, Barbara Courtney Jaenicke, Lea Colie Wight, Valerie Craig, Jon Redmond, Charlie Hunter, Mark Boedges and Joe Paquet. She now resides and paints in a bucolic rural area in Pennsylvania. A signature member of the Maryland Pastel Society and the Philadelphia Watercolor Society, a member of the Oil Painters of America, American Women Artists, the Pastel Society of America, the Pastel Society of the West Coast, the International Association of Pastel Societies, and the Portrait Society of America, Barbara has received awards at local and national juried competitions and art shows.
Read more |
