Barbara Ryan, Professional Artist
Professional oil paintings, Seascapes, Landscapes, and Florals

Living the years of my youth in the beautiful rural farmland of Eastern Iowa, and the Mississippi River Valley, both my love of painting and the ever changing landscape began to grow.  I now live in rural Virginia, at the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, where I find a myriad of changing landscapes.  These range from the Mountains, through the Virginia Piedmont, down to the Eastern Shore, and on to the beautiful vistas of the ocean.  In addition to all of the natural beauty I have at my "back door", I continue to travel to new, fresh locations that challenge my artistic capabilities and increase my exposure to a variety of landscapes and scenery.  All of this helps me to create art with emotional and spiritual meaning, painting the things that most connect me to the world. 

Throughout the years, my painting technique has developed with a great influence from the Impressionist painters.  I, like them, are dedicating my life's work to studying the principles of the effects of light on color.  I observe how nature is infinitely varied with every day, every scene having a different light effect and different influence on my perception of color.

From Monet and other French Impressionists, to the more present American Impressionists, like William Chase, and Charles Hawthorne, my passion has been to explore light and color, expanding my vision and response to nature, helping me to see the variety of light and atmosphere, and capturing it in my paintings.

Painting allows me to share the beauty of the world along with the splendor of color and light.  My desire is that each viewer of my work sees what they love about a landscape or object within it.  I present what stirs me, in hopes that the viewer will share in the emotional response.

BRyan