Featured Artist Barbara Rogers

Artist Barbara Rogers  uses botanical and ornamental forms to draw the viewer into her complex paintings. More of her artwork can be found on her website.

 

“Flow #2” Oil on Canvas, 66” x 60” by artist Barbara Rogers. See her portfolio by visiting www.ArtsyShark.com

“Flow #2” Oil on Canvas, 66” x 60”

 

I want to remain vulnerable to beauty. I want to be stopped in my tracks by something I call beautiful that I have never noticed or seen before.

 

“Night Games” Oil on Canvas, 48” x 36” by artist Barbara Rogers. See her portfolio by visiting www.ArtsyShark.com

“Night Games” Oil on Canvas, 48” x 36”

 

If your artwork is not readily identified as art that challenges the status quo or in support of social change, then you run the risk of being labeled the maker of beautiful and harmonious paintings. Some call beautiful, abstract painting mere decoration, as if decorative is a pejorative. Yet, every person, every culture, beautifies in its own way.

 

“Spice Garden” Oil on Canvas, Triptych, 66” x 132” by artist Barbara Rogers. See her portfolio by visiting www.ArtsyShark.com

“Spice Garden” Oil on Canvas, Triptych, 66” x 132”

 

Even in the most modest settings, people look for ways to bring beauty to their surroundings, to create a sanctuary. Making something beautiful is a necessary act of ritual for many people in the world. This act, in and of itself, has function and meaning.

 

“Ancient Embellishments” Oil on Canvas with Gold Leaf, 75” x 51” by artist Barbara Rogers. See her portfolio by visiting www.ArtsyShark.com

“Ancient Embellishments” Oil on Canvas with Gold Leaf, 75” x 51”

 

Through my paintings, I am reclaiming a space for beauty in the midst of everyday life. I seek to create a place of respite, reflection, and contemplation. Sometimes, we just need to recover by looking at something beautiful in silence, allowing us to think and feel.

 

“Strange Botany #11, 2014” Oil on Paper, 24” x 24” by artist Barbara Rogers. See her portfolio by visiting www.ArtsyShark.com

“Strange Botany #11, 2014” Oil on Paper, 24” x 24”

 

Why do I employ ornamental forms and botanical shapes as reoccurring motifs in my paintings? These shapes embody paradisiacal notions, giving visible form to the cosmos, infinity, universal relationships, principles of order and natural laws. The arabesque is more than an ornamental motif. It is a structuring principal of universal validity and important to cultural history.

 

“Swimming at the Lake Palace” Oil on Canvas, 52” x 132” by artist Barbara Rogers. See her portfolio by visiting www.ArtsyShark.com

“Swimming at the Lake Palace” Oil on Canvas, 52” x 132”

 

Ornamental shapes from other cultures and patterns enable me to find a variety of more interesting forms, ideas, and structures than I could dream up by myself. I look for ideas in nature that conform to the painting ideas I have developed from years of painting and teaching.

 

“Smell of Rain in the Desert” Oil on Canvas, 72” x 54” by artist Barbara Rogers. See her portfolio by visiting www.ArtsyShark.com

“Smell of Rain in the Desert” Oil on Canvas, 72” x 54”

 

Still, I don’t place too much value on subject matter. My painting ideas come as much from art, travel and studying diverse cultures as from nature.

 

“Sanctuary #2” Oil on Canvas, 72” x 50” by artist Barbara Rogers. See her portfolio by visiting www.ArtsyShark.com

“Sanctuary #2” Oil on Canvas, 72” x 50”

 

My paintings are abstract in the sense that they depart from representational accuracy. I often select and then exaggerate or simplify botanical forms that are suggested in the world around me, especially in my own garden in Arizona.

 

“Secret of Joy” Oil on Canvas, 60” x 52” by artist Barbara Rogers. See her portfolio by visiting www.ArtsyShark.com

“Secret of Joy” Oil on Canvas, 60” x 52”

 

Every painting I begin makes its own demands. The wonder of this dialogue with paint, color, form and space is what keeps me excited about working.

 

“Wild Around the Edges” Oil on Paper, 28” x 40” by artist Barbara Rogers. See her portfolio by visiting www.ArtsyShark.com

“Wild Around the Edges” Oil on Paper, 28” x 40”

 

My memories hold all that I have seen, heard and touched in this world. More time for travel and working in my own garden here in Tucson keep new ideas arriving constantly! All the colors, shapes and forms I have experienced are stored and ready to be drawn upon when I am working. When I paint, I am an explorer in the terrain of my own psyche, discovering what will emerge as the work develops.

 

 

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Comments

  1. Wow! Gorgeous work combining two of my favourite motifs – decorative pattern and botanical forms! Wonderful rich colours too.

  2. Cool stuff! I am reminded that Matisse desired only to make beautiful paintings…good enough for me! Keep up the good work, keep digging, be wonderful!

  3. These are fascinating. I love the opportunity to discover new artists that Carolyn provides.

  4. Beautiful paintings! Gorgeous Color, form, relationships, space! I will be painting at Rancho Linda Vista next April, 2017. We met years ago at Charlotte Renata Simmonds’ house in Kirkland, WA–or was it through Gene Gentry Mc Mahon in Seattle? My website: http://www.joanstuartross.com
    Would love to see you again.
    Sincerely,
    Joan.

  5. Máire Ní Bhroin says

    I live the complexity of your colourful and whimsical, surreal artwork. Masterfully done and expressed!

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