"Painting to me is a joy,
a challenge, a fulfillment and a love affair. It is a vehicle for expressing
impressions I have drawn from a tangible world, where color is the music of
painting."
Barbara's work strikes
a chord in the breast of the average man or woman and comes close to the heart,
having a personal and lasting appeal. Fascinated with color, her canvasses
can be bold or vigorous, or have a poetic delicacy. Each is marked with distinctive
imagination, insight and love.
Barbara is ever striving
to give us a glimpse of the universal woman, ever probing the quiet depths
of the human drama. So let us enjoy the fruits of her labor. For it is the
preference of the people that has given Barbara A. Wood a permanency.
Barbara A.Wood is a native
of Columbus, Ohio. Barbara, never knowing her real father, was raised by her
mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. Her mother having to work in order
to make ends meet, shewould often leave Barbara in the care of her grandmothers.
The personalities of the three women formed a catalyst for her art.
As an only child and
sometimes a lonely child, she was afflicted with bouts of pneumonia and asthma
and spent many hours in her room longing to be with friends. "It seemed I
was always on the inside looking out." Perhaps that could explain
the sensitivty in so many of her paintings. Barbara remembers her mother encouraging
her to sketch and paint, and always keeping her in ample supplies of artist
materials. Sometimes her only friends were the ones she created on her drawing
board.
Following high school
she attended Traphagen Shool of Fashion on a scholarship, however, one of
her instructors encouraged her to turn her talents to fine art. We are grateful
to this instructor, whoever he is, for now we are the recipients of an art
rich in imagery.
Taking this advice, Barbara
transferred to the New York Students Art League. She continued her studies,
married and moved to California. Barbara continued to paint and study while
raising her three children. She attended the Otis Parsons School of Art and
later the Pasadena School of Fine Arts.
Over the past three decades
Barabra has painted with vitalized energy, becoming an international artist.
Her list of collectors is a virtual "Who's Who" of celebrities and collectors
around the world. She has traveled from London to Scotland to Alaska to Japan
exhibiting in one woman shows. Through her serigraphs and other works of art
she is able to reach an audience far and wide. Now, we can enjoy the fruits
of her creativity and her special gift.