Featured Artist Barbara Davies

Experience the beauty and Old World charm in these oil paintings by artist Barbara Davies that are reminiscent of a slower-paced life. View more of her art by visiting her website.

 

 

I was fascinated with color and form when I was young.

 

 

Growing up in a small New England town, I spent hours teaching myself to draw, paint and sculpt. There was always a creative project underway, whether it was a life-sized snow sculpture on the front lawn, or a cadre of circus animals carved from bars of Ivory soap. I won an art contest in second grade, resulting in a summer scholarship at a Boston art school. This fueled my passion for painting.

 

 

Told that I couldn’t support myself as an artist, I worked at various jobs after high school.

 

 

I worked my way up from a secretarial position to product management in a computer company. Because I worked hard, I was rewarded with a college education paid for by my company. With a degree in computer science, my career took off.

 

 

I traveled a great deal throughout Europe and the United States on business. In Europe, I took thousands of photos and made hundreds of sketches of the quaint cafes, passageways, piazzas and churches of the villages encountered in my travels.

 

 

One day, during my commute to the Silicon Valley office where I was a Director at a major computer company, I realized I was unhappy. Going to work each morning had become a chore. My high-stress position was causing me sleepless nights, and I was frequently exhausted from 60-hour work weeks. That morning I resigned, and soon after I enrolled in classes at the College of Art in Oakland, California.

 

 

I focused on Old World painting techniques, glazing thin layers of color over dry underpainting. Soon, I was painting city scenes from all the resource materials I gathered during my European travels.

 

 

I loved painting the century-old buildings with their peeling plaster and exposed stone and brick, winding cobblestone streets and cafe windows with their artistically arranged goods.

 

 

Returning to Europe as an artist, I learned to love the slower pace of small village life. This meant lingering over a latte at an outdoor cafe, or enjoying a simple meal made with local ingredients.

 

 

I began showing my work at local galleries in California, and after my first sale, used the funds to rent studio space in Danville, California. My work is exhibited in collections throughout the United States, and is currently shown locally at Art on the Lane, Danville; Blackhawk Gallery, Blackhawk; The Firehouse Gallery, Pleasanton; and Art Obsessions in Truckee, California.

 

Artist Barbara Davies invites you to follow her on Facebook.

 

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