Lucy Barber is a perceptual painter whose work has always been grounded in realism. However, seeing, painting, and making art is very much an abstract process involving all the senses, experience, memory, and imagination. Barber’s subjects are landscape, still life, and some figure work. She works in oil for the paintings.
Early on, inspired by thinking that objects for still life were like figures on a stage, Lucy would imagine they were literally “alive” and so arranged them in corners of boxes for that purpose. What evolved out of this idea of objects being alive with energy is the idea of “presence ” that can be embodied in the stillness of things, including “sense of place” in landscape and the stillness of figures. This is deeply connected to Barber’s process of seeing.
Through the process of seeing, it is important to understand where things are positioned relative to each other and relative to the space of the painting because it’s all about relationships of one thing to another. This is a greater metaphor for what it means to be an artist and a human being, that everything is about relationships. Lucy Barber’s work is about transforming the experience of seeing and being in the world and letting that travel to the canvas using paint and color.
Her paintings and drawings have been exhibited in the United States and abroad, including Kouros Gallery in New York City, NY; The Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME; Art in Embassies at the American Embassy in Nicosia, Cyprus; Lori Bookstein Gallery, New York City, NY; and Olson Larsen Galleries, West Des Moines, IA.
For her studio painting and drawing, Lucy has received numerous awards, including, among others, two Pollock-Krasner Foundation grants.
