http://www.barbelsmith.com
barbelsmith@bell.net
289.251.2363
Bärbel (pronounced Bear-ble) was born in Germany and began painting at age eight when she immigrated to Canada. She received her formal training at the Alberta College of Art and has since travelled and lived across Canada and painted from coast to coast.
Her first show was at the Muttart Art Gallery in Calgary in the early eighties, and from there, varied juried shows with the Federation of Canadian Artists in Vancouver and Calgary; ongoing art venues across Ontario, as well as in her own studio. Bärbel routinely provides art instruction in libraries, schools, and her own studio, where she inspires artists of all ages in their appreciation for Canadian landscapes and the work of the masters.
Bärbel is a Canadian landscape artist who appreciates the works of Lawren Harris and the Group of Seven. Other influencers are Emily Carr, Doris McCarthy and Ted Harrison.
She currently resides in Colborne, Ontario is married and has nine children, who have all followed her in their appreciation for fine art and this wonderful Canadian landscape which we are privileged to call our home and native land.
As an artist I want to meld and intersect the spiritual with the landscape we live in; to incorporate faith and its impact on art by illumination and light-filled canvases. My inspiration is from the Canadian Group of Seven, particularly Lawren Harris’ middle period and his desire to enlighten, uplift and edify. Art is a way for the soul to reach out and touch the immortal; to catch a fleeting glimpse of God.
My subject is the ever changing Canadian landscape and the striving of the soul to make sense of the world. My medium and materials are; a fresh canvas, a loaded brush, a keyed up colour pallet, and applying the paint while watching and waiting. Art is a form of communication for me; communication between heaven and earth.
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