Showing posts with label Diane Barbee. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Diane Barbee. Show all posts

Small Worlds


Interior "Landscapes" That Create Small Worlds

Recently, I had the thrill of opening the May issue of Phoenix Home & Garden and seeing, on P. 132, a beautiful large photo of a recent painting of mine, called “Temptation.” That definitely made my day! The painting will be part of an exhibit at Colores in early May about “Interiors, Objects and Little Worlds.”

Temptation, Judy Feldman
As you can see, it depicts a cozy living room, where the owners are ready to have some tea and cupcakes – unless Cleo gets to them first!

Never Leaving, Diane Barbee
I’ve always been attracted to interior settings, some real, some imagined. I like to paint a place where I’ve enjoyed myself, or create one where I’d like to be. But so have many other painters, including such masters as Matisse, Bonnard and Hockney. Interiors provide a vehicle for self-expression, particularly if you love color, fabrics, still lifes and window scenes.

Several other Wilde Meyer artists share these interests. Diane Barbee uses interior furnishings to express her joy of color and her optimism about life. She, too, likes to create her own world through painting. In “Round Zebra Pillow,” Diane combines images of things she likes: a funky chair and ottoman with a giant zebra skin pillow, paintings of landscapes and a polka dot dress hanging jauntily from a window. In “Never Leaving,” she zeroes in on the chair itself, using fabrics in colorful, complimentary colors. The diverging lines on the chair cushion and the wood floor take our eye to the back wall, where there is more pattern.
Round Zebra Pillow, Diane Barbee
Freshness and surprise are qualities that come to mind when viewing Diane's work. She believes that life should be full of wonder and inspiration. Her philosophy allows her to enjoy a variety of subject matter. Considering herself an expressionist; she uses color to convey that and her subject matter is a vehicle to that end. Diane is an eternal optimist and hopes to bring that optimism to every painting she creates.
My Real Life Big Screen TV, Lori Faye Bock

Lori Faye Bock also has a personalized vision of interiors. In “My Real Life Big Screen TV,” she presents us with a view from a dining table of a fanciful, walled garden. Everything in this painting is interpreted in a whimsical way. The bold colors and the simplified furniture, flowers, vegetables and animals express an endearing wonder. You could say it’s child-like, but I think it’s more sophisticated than that.

Country House, Jacqueline Rochester
The late Jacqueline Rochester expressed her love of interiors in a more tranquil way. Her color palate is softer, and although she does use patterns in some paintings, they do not affect the viewer in the same way as those in Diane’s paintings.

For example, in “The Present,” the patterned tablecloth, scarf and woman’s dress all catch our attention, but they are not the focal point. Our eyes go to the dog and the gift behind him. The angles of the scarf and the wall corner direct us to the focal point. In “Country House,” the pale pink interior is so soothing, beckoning us to come in, rest and bask in the rays from large sunlit windows.

The Present, Jacqueline Rochester

All these artists have their own personal style, but I would say that those of us who love to paint interiors aim to convey a feeling of contentment and joy to our viewers.