31 Meditations on Three Plums, a series of alla prima oil paintings, began as one small 6 x 6" painting of three plums placed on a square hand-painted plate. A chord was struck. The paintings then became more about the paint itself than the subject matter, and then about skin, sunlight, almost no light, stillness, then about where two points touch, about edges, coldness, wetness, shyness, brilliance, isolation, warmth, tenderness, boldness, depth, constellations, galaxies, rapture, a barometer of my mood that day, the blood red dripping magenta phase of the moon in early December, the weather. Each plum started out with the Japanese enso, the calligraphic circle. Each painting was completed in a single sitting. My mirror: three plums, the blue violet bloom, the dip in the center, the geometry of the plate, the stripes, the shifting light.
About the Paintings
1-31 +1 / Oil on canvas, 6x6”. Archival quality oil colors and ground. All are signed originals.
With a BFA in Drawing and Painting from Kutztown University, Barbara has exhibited in numerous museum and invitational exhibitions including 'Getting Real: 20th Century American Realism from the Philip Desind Collection' and most recently 'Contemporary Imaginings: the Howard A. and Judith Tullman Collection'. Her award-winning work is featured in North Light Books' 'How to Discover Your Personal Painting Style'. She is located in the northeastern United States.
Botticelli, Bellini, da Vinci, Raphael, Vermeer, van der Weyden, Bonnard, Matisse, Diebenkorn, Sorrels, the sky (clouds, stars, wind, meteors), color harmonies, the quality of light in the magic hour, walking, standing still, my father, the creative pursuits of my husband and daughter, the poetry of singer-songwriters, Taos, day dreams, night dreams, the phases of the moon.