ABSTRACT LANDSCAPES ON HANDMADE AND WATERCOLOR PAPER. COLLAGE AND COLOR FIELDS.
Barbara Adrienne Rosen
Works on Paper & Canvas • Contact
I often consider what I am leaving to future generations. My art is not enough. Beyond being an artist, I have many other commitments in my life. I am a member of Woodstock New York Transition, an international movement, begun in the UK, that supports communities in preparing for the future. We are composed of 9 different groups that include local food and permaculture, local banking and investment, green alternative energy, a support group for mediation, and public education on transitioning into the future. I am also a Buddhist and in that capacity stopped painting for two years in order to work on keeping Hydrofracking out of N.Y.S. At the present time, I am researching, writing, and educating people about Lyme disease. A Lyme disease bill was just signed into law by Governor Cuomo that will allow health care practitioners to treat their patients in the best way possible without interference from insurance companies. The bill was a hard won victory for the growing epidemic of Lyme disease.
BIOGRAPHY
What is abstract art? Like music, it allows us to transcend our own world and experience a total different reality. Through the use of color, line and form, abstract art is capable of transmitting expressive, historical, even philosophical information. But first, we need to cultivate the skills of imagination, non-concrete thinking, and intuition. And we need to trust our instinctive reactions, how we feel when we first confront a work of art that is foreign to our habitual or conventional way of seeing the world. There is so much that we miss.
My painting began in play, from the pure pleasure of applying color and paint to paper and canvas. When I first began to paint my goal was to see and really observe the simplicity and the clarity of things in life. That attempt was repeated again and again. In a certain painting a decision was made to carry the energy of some exquisite yellow flowers beyond the boundaries of the visual. Being open to intuition and possibility and finding the balance between color and form became my goal. That was my liberation surpassing my original vision.
I see the abstract everywhere; the stones in a stream, rushing water, the mold on a tree, a cloud in a landscape, and the landscape itself. At first, when I returned to painting, my abstractions required only watercolor and inks. Gradually, I added colored pencils, pastels, and collage, as the need arose. For the last fifteen years I have used mainly handmade paper. And finally I moved from watercolor to acrylic for the greater flexibility I found in the new medium.
RESUME
February 8, 1946
Born in the Bronx, New York
September 1964 - June 1967
Attended UCLA, majoring in dance, then painting and sculpture.
September 1967 - June 1969
Graduated from the San Francisco Art Institute and pursued a career in pottery and tile making until her first child was born in 1984.
December 1984
Used watercolors for the first time while experimenting with handmade paper.
EXHIBITIONS
2010-Present - Represented by Topka - Woodstock, NY
May 5 - June 30, 2005 - Richart Chocolate and Design Gallery, 7 East 55 St., NYC
March 5 - April 30, 2005 - Coldwell Banker - Kingston, NY
Feb. 2005 - Bank of America, Woodstock, NY. The artist curated a show of 5 abstract artists under the title of "An Abstract Vision" for the Inquiring Mind Bookstore in Saugerties, NY
August 2004 - "Vision" for the Inquiring Mind Bookstore in Saugerties, NY
September 1994 - Ambrosia Restaurant, Kingston, NY - solo show
September-November 1994- Elena Zang Gallery, Woodstock, NY
November-December 1996 - Hummingbird Jewelers, Rhinebeck, NY - solo show
May 1997 - New World Home Cooking, Woodstock,NY - solo show
August 1997 - Fleet Bank, Woodstock, NY - solo show
January - April 1999 - Landau Grill, Woodstock - two person show
September 1999 - Hudson United Bank, Woodstock - solo show
August 1999 - Kleinert Gallery, Woodstock - group show
February - June 2000 - Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY group
August 2000 - Woodstock Artists Association - group show - Honorable mention
January-May 2001 - Landau Grill, Woodstock - two person show
January - February 2001 - Albert Shahinian Gallery, Poughkeepsie.NY two woman show
July-August 2001 - Woodstock Artists Ass. - one woman show
September - November 2001 - Blue Mountain Bistro, Woodstock - solo show
December 2001 - Studio fire: All work and materials lost. A new beginning.
February 2002 - Changes (Rauschenberg) financial assistance grant $1000
March 2002 - Gottlieb Foundation, emergency assistance - $3500
2002-2003 - New Art International - accepted into catalog
April 2002 - Represented by Art Forms - Red Bank, NJ
March 2003 - Fleet Bank, Woodstock, NY - solo show
May 2003 - The Uptown, Kingston, NY - solo show
July 2003 - Represented by Woodstock Watercolors, Woodstock, NY/Represented by Phyllis Colman, Los Angeles, CA
September - November 2003 - Taught calligraphy/art class at G Washington Elementary School - TAP grant
November 2003 - Represented by Woodstock Gallery of Art
January 2004 - In the corporate collection of Pfizer
July 2004 - One woman show - Fleet Bank, Woodstock, NY
August 2004 - November 2005 - One woman show - Woodstock Therapy Center
May - June 1994 - Mount Gulian Museum, Dutchess County - solo show
September 1994 - Ambrosia Restaurant, Kingston, NY - solo show
September - November 1994 - Elena Zang Gallery, Woodstock, NY
1989 - 1998 - Ann Leonard Gallery, Woodstock, NY - represented for three periods of six months.
