©Janet Delaney
I’ve always had a rush of pleasure from the colors of my life--whether they be the cargo ships floating outside my San Francisco studio, my father’s quintessentially English garden, the brilliant bougainvillea trailing over my fence. I have wanted to capture the life force of these scenes in a full-bodied way.
For this, I cherish oil paints; I love their intensity, luminosity and ability to withstand my layered process. And they play well with the tools I use: mud knives and squeegees have allowed me to capture the magnitude of the world around me, as though I were a weather goddess drawing big sweeps of sea and sky. By dragging, scraping, smearing, brushing and dripping paint, I endeavor to bring together an elixir of elements that dances between realms both observed and imagined.
Over the past 20 years, I have been fascinated by large, working ships—inspired, I am sure in part, by my family’s naval legacy, and their stories of faraway places. With time, the wider environment of the sky, water and land became more dominant, the ships distilled into mere hints. These abstractions allowed me to indulge in the realm of color, light and sensation.
Recently, with a sense of nostalgic longing that I carry with me for the scenery of my homeland, England. I’ve shifted my gaze to explore the exuberant world of blousy flowers and unfurling foliage. They announce their brilliance at top volume, seemingly shouting out with joy and vitality, and it is this energy I am trying to tap into by making larger-than-life paintings. In a world that often seems saturated with man-made sorrows, I feel an urgency to notice, savor, bear witness and share the astonishing offerings of our natural world.
Suzy Barnard was born in England, earned her BFA (Painting) in 1980 from Bristol Polytechnic and moved to the Bay Area in 1981. She graduated from the MFA Painting program at the San Francisco Art Institute in 1984 and has continued to paint and exhibit throughout the Bay Area and West Coast since then. Her works can be found in many private, and public collections, including the Federal Maritime Commission, Washington DC; Fred Hutchison Cancer Center, Seattle WA; Almoosa Specialist Hospital, Al-Ahsa, Saudi Ariabia; Zuckerberg General Hospital, San Francisco; San Francisco Public Utilities Commission; Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation; Laguna Honda Hospital, San Francisco; The County of Alameda; the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton Business School West; the City of Lafayette.
Barnard paints from her studio at Pier 70 in San Francisco.
Representation:
Simon Breitbard Fine Art, San Francisco, Menlo Park, CA www.sbfineart.com
Sue Greenwood Fine Art, Laguna Beach, CA www.suegreenwoodfineart.com
Patricia Rovzar Gallery, Seattle, WA www.rovzargallery.com
Boston Art, Boston, MA www.bostonartinc.com
In the Studio: Photographs by Kara Brodgesell
©Kara Brodgesell
