Biography
Barbara's student Shari finishes her portrait
Acrylic, Watercolor and Oil Painting
“My painting comes from a place within that merges with an experience and/or place:
As I have sailed, canoe-camped and walked in natural beauty
From Canadian wilderness
To Caribbean blue-green water
To Colorado’s rushing currents
To Florida’s peaceful parks
I have translated my internal stirrings to what I see
Sometimes contrasting soft edges of foliage
With the hard of old architecture
Sometimes interpreting abstractly
Sometimes capturing realistically
My work takes on a poignancy as my concern deepens as we steadily lose more and more of our natural world resulting from global warming. I hope I am not painting memorials to what will become what was.”
Biography
Barbara lives in Dunedin, Florida near the Gulf. She gives private art lessons in her home studio along with doing her own work. Her students benefit from her over 25 years of teaching experience to all skill levels and all ages as young as 5. She is a gentle teacher, sensitive to building the confidence of the artist within. As a colorist, she stresses the importance of learning how to mix colors.
Some of Barbara’s Hillsborough Community College, Tampa, Florida students at the last class session.
She taught painting, composition, color theory and drawing 5 years at Lansing (Michigan) Community College, watercolor 15 years at Michigan State University and art appreciation 4 years at Hillsborough Community College (Florida). Awarded the Master of Arts Degree in Fine Arts at Eastern Michigan University in 1997, Barbara is well grounded in traditional and contemporary painting as well as art history.
Moving to Florida from Michigan in 2003, Barbara brought with her excellent exhibition experience, from solo to group shows, all juried. Example: A watercolor was selected for a statewide exhibition traveling to various Michigan museums and galleries.
In Florida her acrylic painting “Parforce II” was awarded 2nd place in “The Salon” painting competition juried by The Arts Center, St. Petersburg, Assistant Curator.
Her works are in both private and corporate collections.