N “UNDERWATER,” a
female figure swims
past the sightline of the
viewer; her legs can be
seen, mid-kick, as she
exits the composition to
the left side of the can-vas.
Light falls on the swim-mer’s
skin in a bright, messy
way that replicates the dis-tortion
of sunlight through
chlorinated water. The large,
loose brushstrokes and
rough, textural swaths of
white oil paint in this piece
mimic the swirling of sunlight and water and recall half-blurry memories of summers spent in swimming pools.
“Underwater” is composed from a sparse palette of blues, whites and grays; the red of the woman’s bathing
suit provides the only pop of warmth. Keeping her palette simple allows Barrow to focus on movement and
imbue the piece with an impressionistic quality. Thus, her composition is focused on conveying the experience
of a moment rather than creating a realistic representation of a swimmer.
Although the tools and techniques seem very dissimilar, Barrow draws a direct line from her work with a cam-era
to her switch to brushes, paints and canvases.
The “bread and butter” of her photography career was her portrait work, most often in black and white. One
of her favorite aspects of photography was processing her own negatives. She enjoyed the tactile experience of
coaxing the image to the surface, and manipulating the composition by the use of light.
As photo taking and editing became more digital in the 1990s, Barrow began to miss that hands-on experi-ence.
The search for that feeling is what brought her to oil paints.
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WBM january 2018
“I was a photographer
for 25 years and black
and white is what I was
known for, but I loved the
idea of painting, color
and thick paint,” she says.
“When things changed in
the ‘computer age’ I went
from being incredibly
hands-on, doing my own
processing, to being more
of a technician. And that’s
what pushed me to finally
make the leap to painting.”
Underwater, 20 x 30 inches, oil on canvas.
I
Above: Purple Landscape, 16 x 20 inches, oil on canvas. Above right: Sea Foam, 24 x 36 inches, oil on canvas.