Entrance (from Oaxaca Walls series), mixed media on museum board

Barbara Horosko Nichols is an artist who currently lives and works in Los Angeles, California. In her practice, Barbara creates paintings of architectural features and shadowy geometric structures around Los Angeles and other regions. 

Passion Flower and Hibiscus, coloured pencil and graphite on paper

I really enjoy the unique texture in Barbara’s paintings -- the artist works mostly in mixed media on museum board, and the resulting works look somewhere between frescoes and pencil crayon drawings. There’s a sense that these works would be rough to the touch, and that notion serves the dual purpose of creating visual interesting and giving the viewer a more visceral, realistic impression of the artist’s subject matter, which often heavily features stone and concrete walls, gateways, and other moments. 

www.barbarahoroskonichols.com

In her Los Angeles Rivers series, Barbara takes a more abstract approach, inspired by aerial views of the LA landscape, as well as close-ups of the texture and movement of the water. The works use the same uniformly rough texture, lending to a visually interesting sense of contrast.

Bend (from Los Angeles Rivers series), pastel, acrylic, coloured pencil and graphite on paper