Gestural and Painterly: Art by Barbara Haviland
Texas-based painter Barbara Haviland works mainly in oil on canvas, depicting classical landscapes, still-life subjects, and more in a gestural and painterly style. Barbara’s works tend to focus on elements of lighting and the creation of natural-looking textures for rocks, trees, grass, and man-made materials.
Sunflowers, Daisies, Hydrangeas, oil on canvas
I really enjoy Barbara’s floral works – being able to see them all as a series on the artist’s website creates a lovely impression of numerous flowers captured and immortalized in paint. I find Barbara’s particular style of slightly loose, gestural, movement-focused mark-making very well suited to this subject matter. Individual flower petals are rendered in just enough detail to allow the viewer to parse them, but blended enough to create a totally cohesive composition when the painting is viewed from afar.
Barbara's portfolio website, www.barbarahavilandtexasartist.com
Barbara experiments with a wide range of subject matter, adjusting her style just enough to accommodate vastly different textures. Her paintings of rusted-out cars sitting in natural scenes reminds me of David B. Scott’s Left To The Elements series.
