Transfixed by the light
Laura Barrow, High Life, oil, 12 x 24.
This story was featured in the July 2020 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art July 2020 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.
GROWING UP IN a family of painters, Laura Barrow recalls a favorite phrase they liked to toss around when something caught a family member’s eye. Often, these marvels were spotted outdoors, where the kaleidoscope of shapes and colors has dazzled the landscape artist since she was a child. “We’d be together and someone would say, ‘Oh my god, look at that,’ and we’d say, ‘Someone has their art eyes on!’” Today, adds Barrow, “I’ve always got my eyes open and looking.”
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- Laura Barrow, Evening in Canyon de Chelly (Spider Rock), oil, 30 x 24.
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- Laura Barrow, Sapphire and Diamonds, oil, 14 x 11.
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- Laura Barrow, Above Fort Davis, Late in the Day, oil, 9 x 12.
Perusing Barrow’s oeuvre of sunlit southwestern landscapes, you’d never guess that the Austin, TX, artist once created abstracted works exclusively. “Raised on abstraction,” as she describes it, the oil painter spent her early fine-art career studying the works of abstract expressionists like Hans Hoffmann (1880-1966) and Helen Frankenthaler (1928-2011). But in the representational works she creates today—pieces generally inspired by her plein-air explorations—Barrow finds that the basic ingredients of painting are the same. “For me, it’s trying to do justice to what I see,” she says. “I’m observing, orchestrating, and extracting geometries and compositional bones that are true whether you’re an abstract painter or a landscape painter.”
Barrow’s art education has been extensive and far-reaching, taking her from art history studies at Duke University to a focus on painting in Cordona, Italy, and at the University of Texas at Austin. She has also studied with artists Laurel Daniel, Qiang Huang, Jill Carver, and Suzie Baker, and lately she’s been seeking guidance from Minnesota artist Joe Paquet. And though she remains an admirer of abstract painters like Frankenthaler, Barrow has more recently gleaned inspiration from landscape artists as diverse as Joellyn Duesberry (1944-2016), Edgar Payne (1883-1947), and Victor Higgins (1884-1949). “They all have a higher level of abstraction than what I’m doing,” she notes, “but they’re very much about the landscape.”
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- Laura Barrow, Deep Peace of the River to You, oil, 24 x 18.
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- Laura Barrow, Bryce Canyon Swoosh, oil, 9 x 12.
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- Laura Barrow, Hill Country Retreat, oil, 24 x 30.
From Big Bend to Enchanted Rock, iconic sites around the Lone Star State routinely pop up in Barrow’s work. The landscape is “home turf” for the Texas native, who recently painted an homage to the prickly pear that won Best Outdoor Still Life in the December/January PleinAir Salon competition. But Barrow’s “art eyes” don’t always fixate on nature’s classically beautiful spectacles. “For me, light can transform a fire hydrant into a thing of beauty,” she says. “The most joy and energy is—as it is for most painters of nature—the light, and the amazing effects of light.” —Kim Agricola
representation
www.laurabarrow.com
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- Laura Barrow, River’s Welcome, oil, 20 x 20.
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- Laura Barrow, Santa Elena Canyon Morning, oil, 16 x 12.
This story was featured in the July 2020 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art July 2020 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.
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