ARTIST STATEMENT
The purpose of art is to express beyond words what life is about: beauty and pain. One morning, long ago, I was grief-stricken from the early and sudden death of my father. I felt aimless. I didn’t know what to do and didn’t feel like doing anything, so I headed outside to sit in the shade by the roses. I was looking at a tired old rose, and I felt old and tired too, even though I had just turned seventeen. My world and everything in it felt gray and lifeless. As I looked and looked at that old rose, my perception subtly shifted. Instead of just an old flower, I saw light filtering through the petals, turning them luminescent and brilliant. I was captivated by the pattern of shadows. I noticed other things, too. I saw the shapes of the spaces between leaves, the contours and edges of the rose. It was full of sparkling, shimmering, vibrating color. As I looked and saw different qualities of the rose, it felt like the walls separating us came tumbling down, and there was freedom. Everything was beautiful, intensively alive, and peaceful. Beauty with a capital “B”. My pain had been transformed by Beauty. In fact, the depths of my grief had probably expanded my capacity to experience Beauty. I don’t really know how to express this experience in words; I felt empty of myself, my personality—but completely full and connected to everything I saw. I was paying attention to the world, and the rose, in a way I had never done before.
So why do I paint? I’ve found that seeking the answers to visual questions brings me into the state of paying profound attention, with the result of experiencing greater awareness of the present moment. Painting is an expressive, emotional and (paradoxically) nonverbal language. Painting is the language of relationships—the interplay of light and shadow, color, value, movement. Painting teaches me to see; seeing teaches me how to paint. It is a lifelong lesson to respond to the world with curiosity, not automaticity. I’ve learned nothing can be viewed in isolation, but rather is in constant relationship to its environment. For example, a muted blue can appear intense relative to the grays around it. Seeing with artist’s eyes is the art of un-labeling. In painting, a cup is not a “cup”. A “cup” can be an exquisite interplay of shape, form, patterns of light, shadow, color and emotion. Something as simple as a cup has its own truth, and the role as an artist is to render that truth. This is also the reason I teach painting and drawing—to help shift the perspective of my students to see true Beauty, and nourish it in their work. Because once you realize Beauty is beneath the surface of all things—as that old rose did for me when I was seventeen— it changes you. And the practice of art is to ask the right questions as you work, questions that allow you to slip beneath the surface of what we find mundane, and see what you never expected.
BIO
My true passion is creating art. Paintings. Someone once told me to make a “daily habit of art” in my life, if I intended to develop as an artist. I have taken this advice to heart. And yet, I have worked in other professions in tandem with being an artist. My other professions were all in the wake of my passion for art. I chose work that fed my soul and did more than just pay the bills. I’ve had three careers that I have been deeply committed to. My first career was as a City Planner and Urban Designer with the goal of creating beautiful and livable places for people. My second career was teaching design and drawing as a professor at the University of New Mexico School of Architecture and Planning. In my third career I owned an ecological restoration nursery and consulting business with my husband, Ross Coleman, restoring rivers and wetlands throughout the western United States. I loved my three careers. Working in this way provided me financial freedom to develop my creative process as an artist, while showing my paintings in galleries and shows, both nationally and internationally.
My informal art education started when I was a child, living in France. Our home was in the Fontainebleau Forest, outside of Paris. My father would take me to the Louvre, the Jeu de Pomme Museum and other art venues in Paris every weekend. Living and traveling in Europe for three years as a child left an indelible impression on me. The art, architecture, culture and learning new languages inspired me. It made me want to be an artist. At twenty years old, I moved back to to Aix-en-Provence, France to attend art school. It felt like going home. After returning to the United States, I studied art and architecture, earning a Master’s Degree in Community and Regional Planning. I’ve continued my artistic studies in painting with Kevin Macpherson, Scott Christensen, Ray Roberts, Peggi Kroll Roberts, Jill Carver, John Poon and Kathryn Stats.
I live in New Mexico. My husband and I have raised three children. Parenting is its own art form and spiritual practice. One daughter is a lawyer, the other is a doctor and our son is a physician’s assistant in anesthesiology. Family life has enriched my life and painting in ways I never imagined.
SELECTED JURIED AND INVITATIONAL EXHIBITIONS, AWARDS AND HONORS
2023
American Impressionist Society Small Works Showcase, District Gallery, Knoxville, Tennessee
American Impressionist Society National Exhibition, Somerville Manning Gallery, Greenville Delaware
Invitation to Door County Plein Air, Wisconsin
2022
Award of Distinction, American Impressionist Society National Exhibition, Mary Williams Fine Arts, Boulder, CO Judge Huihan Liu AISM
Oil Painters of America 31st Annual National Juried Exhibition of Traditional Oils, Steamboat Art Museum, Steamboat Springs, CO
Plein Air Painters of New Mexico National Exhibition, Wild Sage Gallery, Taos, NM
Plein and Painters of New Mexico Master and Signature Show at Taos Art Museum at Fechin House, Taos, NM
2021
Best of Show, 2021 Plein Air Painters of New Mexico National Show, Sorrel Sky Gallery, Santa Fe, NM, Judge: Jill Carver
Award of Excellence, 2021 Oil Painters of America National Salon Show, Quinlan Visual Arts Center, Gainesville, Georgia. Judge: Charles Young Walls OPA
2020
Oil Painters of America 29th Annual National Juried Exhibition of Traditional Oils, RS Hanna Gallery, Fredericksburg, Texas
Oil Painters of America Western Regional Virtual Show, Illume Gallery of Fine Art, St. George, Utah
Best of Signature Members Award, National Juried Members Exhibition, Plein Air Painters of New Mexico, Wilder Nightingale Gallery, Taos, NM, Judge: Lorenzo Chavez
Plein Air Painters of New Mexico’s Taos Plein Air: Juried Members Exhibition, Blumenschein Museum, Taos, NM
30th Annual ArtsThrive: Art Exhibition and Benefit, Albuquerque Museum of Art and Art History, Albuquerque, NM
A Winter Invitational Exhibition, Taos Art Museum at Fechin House, Taos, NM, Plein Air Painters of New Mexico Master and Signature Members
2019
Award of Excellence, Plein Air Painters of New Mexico Small Paintings Juried Show at Taos Art Museum , Fechin Studio, Taos, NM Judge Louis Escobedo
Figurative Award of Excellence, Plein Air Painters of New Mexico, National Juried Members Exhibition, Santa Fe Art Collectors Gallery, Santa Fe, NM Judge Peggi Kroll Roberts
Honorable Mention, Oil Painters of America Spring Online Showcase
Oil Painters of America Western Regional Exhibition, Sorrel Sky Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico
29th Annual ArtsThrive: Art Exhibition and Benefit, Albuquerque, Museum of Art and History, Albuquerque, NM
2018
Best of Show, Plein Air Painters of New Mexico National Juried Exhibition, Sorrel Sky Gallery, Santa Fe, NM Judge Ray Roberts
28th Annual ArtsThrive: Art Exhibition and Benefit, Albuquerque Museum of Art and Art History, Albuquerque, NM. Honored as a Large Format Artist.
Plein Air Painters of New Mexico Signature and Master Signature Invitational Member Show, Taos Art Museum, Fechin Studio, Taos, New Mexico
2017
27th Annual ArtsThrive: Art Exhibition and Benefit, Albuquerque Museum of Art and Art History, Albuquerque, NM
2016
26th Annual Miniatures and More, Albuquerque Museum of Art and Art History, Albuquerque, NM
2014
Oil Painters of America, 23rd Annual National Juried Exhibition of Traditional Oils, Bennington Center for the Arts, Bennington, VT
2013
Oil Painters of America, National Juried Salon Show of Traditional Oils, Crooked Tree Arts Center, Petoskey, Michigan
23rd Annual Miniatures and More, Albuquerque Museum of Art and Art History, Albuquerque, NM
Weekend in the West, Evergreen Fine Art Gallery, Evergreen, CO.
2012
Seascape Award of Excellence, Oil Painters of America, 21st Annual National Juried Exhibition of Traditional Oils, Evergreen Fine Art Gallery, Evergreen, CO
2005
Biennale Internazionale Dell’Arte Contemporanea, Fortezza da Basso, Florence, Italy. This was the fifth annual international exhibition of contemporary art. This was an international invitational show in Florence, Italy.
2000
Jesus 2000, sponsored by the National Catholic Reporter, a worldwide art competition, Schimmel Center for the Arts, Pace University, New York City, NY. This show also went on a national tour to Chicago, Illinois and to Belleville, Illinois.
SOLO SHOWS
2013, Popejoy Hall solo show, Benefactors Lounge and Gallery, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM
2006, New Space at Paragon Gallery, Albuquerque, NM
2005, Water in the Desert, at Dartmouth Street Gallery, Albuquerque, NM
2004, Liminal Space, Dartmouth Street Gallery, Albuquerque, NM
2003, New Paintings, solo show, Dartmouth Street Gallery, Albuquerque, NM
See Barbara’s CV here