Upcoming Art Show

 

Curator’s Choice: A Dual Exhibition with Carol Barber + William Bennett
September 6-27, 2024 (Dové Gallery)

Second Street Gallery – Charlottesville, VA

As I continue to use paint as a medium, the digital art that I did early in my career still influences me. This manifests through experimentations with materials and layering of paint. My latest work involves painting directly on transparent substrates and suspending acrylic paint on top of clear acrylic gel. These methods present unique layering techniques all my own. September 6 – 27, 2024, I will be showing with the sculptor, William Bennet, in the Dové Gallery at Second Street Gallery. My new work will include paintings on clear Dura-lar film. The colors in the paintings represent memories of closely watching blown bubbles as a child. Paintings on wooden panels with colors representing carnival rides at night will also be in the exhibit. Looking forward to sharing “the carnival” paintings in the coming weeks!

“Blowing Bubbles”, acrylic on Dura-lar, 16″ x 16″, 2024.

Day Glow Collection

 I curated from my flat file and added a few new paintings to make a collection of original art available with bright optimistic colors to bring happiness to your day! I believe these pieces would coordinate well together in a room or on a gallery wall. Check out the entire collection in my Etsy store. Thank you for your support!

Painting Earrings and Large Paper

Carol Barber's hand painted earrings

Last Spring and through the Summer I started painting on large paper, 18" x 24" and wooden shapes for earrings. I finished the first release of earrings and sold quite a few, so I am working on a second release for November 2nd, 2019. The earrings are very interesting to make. I have discovered I like quick gestures and a scraping technique the best because of the organic feeling to the paint. Sometimes this works easily but sometimes I really struggle with it. So many factors come into play from paint consistency to how much pressure I use with my hand or tool. I have discarded many attempts. I also have to make the two earrings match in mirror image which is an added challenge. The large paper has helped me to produce many pieces quickly and it is surprising how many layers of paint one piece of paper will take.

"All Along the Watchtower", 18" x 24" mixed media on paper

Carol H. Barber © 2019

Music, Art, Creativity: Come Compare on October 5th

At Second Street Gallery 

On October 5th from 5:30 to 7:30 there will be an opening reception at Second Street Gallery and the featured artist is Lana Guerra from New Orleans. She will also be presenting a puppet show at 6:30.
My work will be in the "Backroom" which is really the office area, but I am still very excited to have a presence at this gallery. When I moved to Charlottesville seven years ago, I wanted to do art that was contemporary and could be shown at this gallery. Now after working these years to find my own voice in abstraction, my wish has come true. I am happy to be working in a manner that is abstract, intuitive and feels good to create.
When you go through the gallery you will see that Lana and I use some of the same bright colors such as fluorescent pink and teal but the over all feelings of the paintings are so different. Her art is like punk rock and mine is like jazz. I wonder if my art really is like jazz? I looked up Jazz on Wikipedia and maybe Lana's art is more like Jazz, both originated in New Orleans. I do not know much about music, but I thought Wikipedia would say that jazz was improvisational and playing with the elements of music. However, it didn't really say that, maybe I should ask a musician how they feel about it. I am in love with the art and design elements and I feel I do intuitively play with the elements to make finished compositions. Lana is working in an intuitive stream of consciousness, letting her creativity run wild. I hope to find out more about the narratives she creates on October 5th. She may have purposes and reasons for the stories or she may create them and the meanings emerge. I feel pretty sure the need to create is another common bond between the two of us and not just the same bright colors.

WATER. POISON. DRINK. DIVE. LANA GUERRA 9.7.2018 TO 10.20.2018

"Melt My Heart" 2018 © Carol Barber

New Painting

I am happy the composition that emerged in this painting. I painted on raw canvas and I think the novelty of the experience slowed me down and kept me from overworking it. I was surprised that the painting became about texture. The brush strokes did not readily stick to the raw canvas and this gave a dry brush effect. I thought it was going to be more poured stains and look like watercolor. I will now seal the back and the front of the canvas to keep it from shifting in color.

"Soft Landing", acrylic on raw canvas, 25"x 39"
Carol H. Barber © 2017

Pink Notes

This painting, Pink Notes, spoke to me in new ways. I find the process of collage so satisfying and an inventive way of working. I have been trying to bring that way of working into painting. This painting has some collage added to it and it has a history of layers but still retains some of it's initial thin washes. This is the first time I thought of shapes not just coming together to construct something but expanding apart and still relating to each other. I love finding those relationships and to me this is visually composing. I have very limited musical knowledge but this process and painting feels like visual music to me. Notes (or shapes) hanging in the air, expanding and leading to another.

Pink Notes, 12” x 24”,

acrylic and collaged paper on canvas, Carol H. Barber©2017

Sweet Secrets, 8” x 10”,

acrylic and collaged paper on paper, Carol H. Barber©2017

Last Year's Vacation Painting

Go to the Ocean

18” x 24”,

acrylic on canvas, Carol Barber©2016.

Whoa Two Years!

Hello Google Search World,

I stopped keeping this blog two years ago, about the time I allowed myself to go nonrepresentational in my art. I have grown so much towards art of which I can be truly proud. It is still a journey and new things to strive towards everyday but I love the path that I am on. I caught a glimpse of my art in a google search today and WHAT? Nothing new in two years!?? I have been active on Instagram and my Wordpress but not here. So does that mean I don't exist in the Google world? I guess so. Now let me start working to get you caught up Google. I am going to post some favorites from the last two years and see what happens. Thank you for an interest in my work, I would enjoy hearing from you. Art is my lifelong passion.

Carol Barber

The Other Side, 16" x 20", acrylic on canvas, Carol Barber © 2016.

Gallery Tour

Check out my Fruit Roll-Up "glass" vessel on the food table.
I hope if you are in the Melrose area that you can visit the gallery during the month of June. It will be open regular hours.
Melrose Bay Art Gallery
103 SR-26, PO Box 36 - Melrose, FL 32666
ph. (352) 475-3866 or 871-5633 (cell)
hours: Fri 3-7pm, Sat 10am-6pm, Sun 1-5pm (call on weekdays)

The gallery looks so pretty right now. I was blown away by how some of Sarah and Sky's color combinations matched the colors of the paintings.

New Abstract Work

I can't believe I didn't add to my blog the entire month of April. But miraculously, I was able to get some new work done. The key was starting them all at the same time. Whenever I do that, I seem to get more done and they turn out well. I started all of these from some quick sketches I did in March while floating along the river. I was fascinated by the trees growing right on the water's edge. At home I worked on the sketches by giving them more distinct shapes and lines. I got more and more comfortable laying down strokes. I want to continue the work I started here of layering the background shapes and foreground shapes in a back and forth manner.

Thinking Man

I tried the thick modeling paste again. The results are interesting. I don't know if I am ready for solid blocks of color, I miss the variation of tones that was in the still life. But I do like the three dimensional presence of the thick modeling paste.

Going Digital Again

I am excited about combining my painted elements with digital photography on the computer. When I was in graduate school, I would do a digital piece then a painting and work back and forth. Then, I did not put paintings into my digital composites but mostly found textures and digital photographs. I was discovering how to work with paint media and texture with those explorations. I was very concerned about how to make things subtle and integrated. With my new work I believe I will learn about forms and shapes. I think going back and forth into the realistic elements of digital photography will be beneficial to my painting. I took a photo of this face when I was starting a painting. I proceeded to paint over this so I am glad that I grabbed it with my camera and was able to go back to it on the computer. Now I am adding photo elements to it. It might be hard to tell what is photo and what is not in the face. It is still a work in progress.
As I continued with the original painting, I overworked it and lost it. I am going to scrap it off and start over on the board. I recognize the mistakes of the painting because I have made them before. I had the idea I wanted to make a mythical beast so I drew the shapes and then tried to integrate it into the painting or space around it. Whenever I do that, it seems the painting falls apart into pretty marks and no form. The forms and images need to emerge from the process of painting almost like a sculptor building forms from clay. Tightening and defining towards the end of the process instead of the beginning. I am still not sure how to begin the entire process, although thinned out media seems to work well. When I do start with lots of thin medium, then finding good compositions and shapes is the challenge. But I see so many images in the tonal changes of color created from working with fluid acrylics and mediums.

Writing on the Painting

I have been writing short sentences to go with all of the paintings for the upcoming show. I am really more excited about that aspect of the show than any other. I have never done any creative writing beyond elementary school so I feel like a folk artist in that respect. I don't know if I am making obvious mistakes or not. Ignorance is bliss I guess. I am really curious how people are going to react to them. When my husband read one, he said "what does that mean?" and started making interpretations I never thought of. I think that is a good sign the writings match my art, ambiguous. Getting out of my comfort zone and entering the unknown is making the show more exciting and fun. If I ever get bored showing my art, I will have to remember to try something really different for me such as sculpture.

Poppies

This is the latest painting that I am working on and I feel that it represents a breakthrough. After looking at Chagall's and Odilon Redon's work, I wanted colors to stay in their own areas in the painting. The placement of the colors is forming the composition and is not dictated by the imagery and forms. I am also resisting the urge to disperse the colors equally over the painting. I still want to work more with the yellow areas and the small flowers but keep them soft and distant.

Man by the Sea

This painting did not flow from beginning to end like the last two small ones did. I ruined the colors making them too light and dark and then had to wash and sand them off and bring the forms back. What is amazing is how many sail boats and faces started appearing. That mystery of the creative process and how something develops never stops intriguing me. But as a painting I don't think the composition and color is as strong as in the last two. And I wonder if people will stop to see all that is hidden in this painting.

A Time for Compassion

What does anyone think of this new painting? I think maybe it is too cutesy. I am wondering why I am not getting the unique results of former mixed media sketches in my paintings. One theory I have is that I am getting too heavy handed with paint too soon. I like some of my former paintings that started as liquid subtle washes really watery paint mixing out of control and then I clarified with purposeful heavier strokes. I am anxious to try again but I need to get ready for two upcoming shows May 5th and 6th.



Speaking of cute. I can't resist posting my two sons photo from yesterday.

Houses in the Wind

This painting will always remind me of hearing the news of the tragedy at Virginia Tech. Ironically, I was thinking of the houses I painted while being a graduate student at Radford University near Blacksburg, Va. yesterday morning and finished this painting yesterday before I heard the news. My husband got his undergraduate degree and did his post doctorate at Virginia Tech. I always think of it as being home, I didn't want to leave when we moved to Florida. My thoughts and prayers are with all of them there.

A Spring Chick

Here is a new painting in progress. I want to change the red face in the lower right. In the painting,the figures are hovering around a baby chick, I'm sure this idea is coming from my son's kindergarten class. They had an incubator and hatched chicks last week. I notice my new pieces all have birds in them and I was thinking of all of the ways birds are symbols. Personally, I think of birds symbolizing freedom because they fly, joy because they provide constant background music to my days (I hear them right now out of the window), and love because of the tender way we need to hold them on our rare opportunity.

Two New "Boy" Paintings

I like the layering of these two new paintings and they look more mature or artsy. I think if they were anyone else's I would think they were cool. I personally would like the subject matter to be more feminine. These are of male face's probably because I have been drawing and doing studies of my sons' faces. When I start working without any preconceived ideas it is amazing how things I have drawn, read or thought appear. I guess I should draw some things that I want to paint later. I have a list of meaningful symbols that I would like to appear in my work. I started with one of them, a ladder, in a "Boy's Life". I also want the composition to be non-linear and dream-like as in the center of "A Boy's Life". I like how the face in "Listening to Living Music" is dimensional, expressive and layered. I wish I could love the entire paintings as much as I love one part. I'll keep going believing it is all going to come together.

Listening to Living Music

























A Boy's Life

She was a Farmer