Liz Barber: Abstracting the Elements

What happens when you ask two lovely blonde, talented abstract artists to commit to a show at the gallery?  We get the honor and pleasure of curating a weekend-long event for the incomparable Melissa Payne Baker and Liz Barber – and you get to feast your eyes on a gorgeous array of spectacularly created paintings.

First of all, mark your calendars for Friday, October 18th and Saturday, October 19th because we’ll be sharing the inspiration, creativity and hard work of these two wonderful painters and friends.  We’ll unveil the show to the public on Friday night from 6-8. And on Saturday, Baker & Barber will go head-to-head in an event we’re jokingly calling the Dueling Demos. Both artists will be on hand, painting up a storm and chatting with viewers.  It’s going to be fabulous.  Here’s a teeny little glimpse of what’ll be hanging on the walls:

Liz Barber, Promise of Spring (24 x 24, mixed media on canvas)

Melissa Payne Baker’s The Present (48 x 24, mixed media on canvas) will be present at the show…

It takes a lot of work to put on a show. The artists spend months developing their inspiration for a new body of work and then creating and painting like crazy.  We spend months promoting and publicizing the show. And, as it gets closer we get to do something really fun: visit the painters in their studios for a little sneak peek at the work and the direction it’s taking.   So we were excited when Liz Barber invited us to stop by to take a look at what she was cooking up for the show.

Liz’s tools of the trade at her studio.

Tubes of paint…

 

Rows of pastels…

Our adorable gallery manager, Linda,  studying one of Liz’s newest pieces.

But first, all little history about Liz.  To be completely honest, the great relationship we have with her got off to a rather rocky start.  Years ago when Liz approached us, we were thrilled to have this new artist with us at the gallery and we couldn’t wait to start exhibiting and selling her large splashy abstracted florals.  She’d been selling these very successfully for a while and we were all completely convinced that our clients would respond ecstatically and that we were all a perfect fit.  The Summerhouse, below, was one of those earlier paintings.  We loved Liz’s trademark energy and her clever use of medium.

As life and luck would have it, the minute Liz started showing at the gallery, her sales ground to a halt.  It’s not completely uncommon for that to happen but we were stumped. Was it us? Was it the gallery? Why weren’t these gorgeous pieces selling the way they should be?

And that’s when (for the millionth time), we realized how crucial collaboration is – and that a successful gallery/artist relationship is based on frank conversation and the artist’s ability to translate inspiration and direction onto the canvas.  It goes without saying that Liz, of course, was her usual gracious self.  She headed back to her studio and got busy creating a new body of work specifically for our gallery and clients.  We heaved a sigh of relief and thanked our lucky stars that LIz was so dedicated, hard-working and committed to her craft.

Oh and what glorious new work it was!  Softly fractured angles, circles and abstracted shapes became her focus, all beautifully rendered in a gorgeous palette that had depth and power.  It felt fresh, new and different but we especially loved the way Liz was able to convey her innate love of nature which had always been a source of inspiration for her.  She told us, “My mother loved to garden and I was surrounded by flowers and plants my whole childhood. I was happiest outside in the sunlight and I paint from the perspective of capturing a memory of the way light moves.”

Liz begins moving in a new direction. Posies, 24 x 24.

We were delighted beyond words, hung the work and watched it fly off the walls again and again and again.  Bingo!

One of Liz’s first evolutions.  River Stones.

 

We loved watching Liz develop this new body of work. Here’s another version of River Stones, 36 x 36.

The work grew into this style. “Rise to the Surface.”

 We love Liz and her quiet, elegant sensibility.  She works efficiently and confidently and the results are simply stunning.  She uses a soft palette of colors with vigorous brushstrokes to create paintings that convey nature and light as constantly changing, shifting and moving.

 

We loved this painting. It just bursts with energy and movement but somehow we find it calming and serene at the same time. The Sun, 12 x 12.

 Her evocative atmospheric landscapes tell a short story by freezing a moment in time and then deftly abstracting all the elements.  The common thread that winds itself through her work is her uncanny ability to capture a light source through its interaction with color.  The results are glowing, luminous, enhanced pictures of the gorgeous effects of nature.

Another rendition of The Sun series. The palette has us drooling.

And although she’s blessed with oodles of innate talent, Liz has also worked hard to learn her craft.  She studied painting at the University of Massachusetts and Moore College of Art in Philadelphia and we’re so proud of her success in the art world.  She has loads of local fans as well as plenty up and down the East Coast, from Florida to New York.

We’re thrilled about this show and can’t wait to show off, brag and boast about Liz and Melissa.  We hope you’ll join us to meet these two lovely ladies and enjoy the fruits of their hard work, inspiration and limitless creativity.

And, of course, we can’t sign off without a couple more peeks at what’s to come from Liz:

 Delicate Dance, 24 x 48, mixed media.

 

Fragile Balance of Spring, 30 x 40, mixed media.

Summer’s Perennial Grace, 30 x 40, mixed media.

Ta ta.

(p.s.: stay tuned. We just visited Melissa Payne Baker in her studio and will share that with you soon.)