BARBARA HEILE

My life as a woman and a painter is found in my relationship to color and light. I am curious to know these masses of color in space. This investigation leads me to feel an order in this world that is experienced within and projected into the painting; it continues to surprise me as I witness the way this works. The painting is done primarily with a painting knife in the studio, guided by intuition and visual memory or directly in the landscape, as I see how light affects color. The approach of full-spectrum seeing has awakened my perception of color-light. I am moved more and more to simply paint what I see. I see this as a path of expressive contemplation. The directness of my approach can be intimately felt in the surface of the paintings. I love this work of loving the world as a visual artist.

I have decided to move to Germany! I will be back to see my sons and my family several times a year, but look forward to settling into Freilassing. I am seeing paintings developing from the birch bark of several trees I pass on the road. They look like large etchings and I imagine them held on each side by panels of distant landscape.
Happy New Year!

Middle Street Gallery presented my drawings and paintings in a show titled "My Vision is not 20/20" during the month of June. The work in this show was inspired in part, by the forests of Germany and Virginia.

my work can be seen at The Bridge Gallery in Shepherdstown, West Virginia
Contact me at happy2bwoman@gmail.com