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WELCOME TO WATERCOLORS MY WAY!
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Laurie with her artwork at the Dove Gallery Reception Current and
Upcoming Shows "Thankful" Exhibit
Dove Gallery
October 6 --November 24; Sundays, 12noon-3pm
Opening Reception October 6, 12noon-3pm
Park Victoria Church
875 S. Park Victoria Drive
Milpitas, CA 95035
Contact Carol Hamilton, #(408)464-5011,
for more information
"Citizen Joy, Views of Democracy" Exhibition (TWO of Laurie's Liberty artworks
were juried in!)
Sanchez Art Center
January 17--February 9, 2025
Sanchez Art Center
1220-B Linda Mar Blvd.
Pacifica, CA 94044
Contact: info@ SanchezArtCenter.org or #(650) 355-1894
"Simply the Best"
Santa Clara Valley Watercolor Society's Liberty Above All has
been published in Volume 104 of the Santa Clara Review, a national literary magazine
which includes
professional poetry, fiction, literary non-fiction
and visual art. Founded in 1867, it is the oldest literary magazine
in the western United States The Face of Liberty has been juried
into the
"Incite 3: The Art of Storytelling, the Best of Mixed Media"
competition, and
is available NOW through
North Light Books at https://www.amazon.com/Incite-Storytelling-Best-Mixed-Media/dp/1440340781 |
Laurie Barna is a native northern Californian, who currently resides in the Almaden area
of San Jose. As a child, she loved to draw and color as a hobby and later, took several art classes in college while
pursuing a professional nursing degree. Her first experience with watercolor came in the fall of 1999, when she took a Los
Gatos/Saratoga Adult Education class. It was love at first brushstroke!
In her second student show in the spring
of 2001, her painting of the Arc de Triomphe was selected by her peers as “Best of Show.” Her paintings
have garnered her “Artist of the Month” awards by her Los Gatos Art Association peers and her work has been juried
into both LGAA and Santa Clara Valley Watercolor Society member juried shows. “I love the challenge of painting
with such a versatile yet exacting medium and creating that certain ‘glow’ using color and value.”
In 2006, she took the challenge of watercolor painting "Beyond the Obvious" and began painting the Statue of Liberty
as a still life and in series. She discovered that she is a content painter, and this series has given her an artistic voice
to communicate her strong feelings about Lady Liberty and America. She engages the viewer in a uniquely American dialogue
about the nature and experience of liberty, asking him or her to think...to question...and to remember. There is
a strong sense of both personal and national journey in her series, from Liberty #1: "The Beginning" (2006) to Liberty #101:
"Passing the Torch" (2009). The series has been featured in five solo shows, Liberty #82: "The Price of
Liberty" (2009) was juried into a museum's statewide painting competition and Liberty #28: "Shattered Lives, Shattered
Liberty," Liberty #30: "Lost Liberties" (both from 2007) and Liberty #75: "Breaking Through"
were accepted into national juried shows. The Liberty Series now stands at 39 framed paintings, and she is confident
in her ability to take any idea and "run with it." "Popular Art is a celebration of the Image. Great
Art is the celebration of an Idea." (Preston Metcalf, Chief Curator of the Triton Museum of Art in Santa Clara)
This is her Idea--the Liberty Series. Her desire is to make this series available for public viewing as much as
possible and she continues to search for appropriate venues.
In 2010, she focused on painting portraits and figures (garnering various awards at the
2011 and 2012 San Mateo County Fair) and began painting en plein air with her fellow artists. In 2011, she started
painting an Angel Series, which has allowed her to explore spiritual content as well as trying new ideas and techniques in
designing her paintings. In 2012 and 2013, experiments with collage and torn magazine pages collaged onto
canvas proved to be both fun and successful. "My goal is to use the gifts God has given me to change the world,
one painting and one viewer at a time, and in the process, to grow as an artist and give Him the glory."
March 2014 brought the realization of one of her dreams--a self-published book about her Liberty
Series. After 10 months of writing and editing, and 3 months of formatting and proofing, it's finally here! It
is available to preview and purchase through the link below left, on www.Amazon.com, and directly through the artist if you are a local resident (see contact page).
Although health challenges sidetracked
her in 2017-2019, she has returned to drawing and painting with a recent series in acrylic about "I Remember When..."
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© All Rights Reserved John 3:16
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