Laurence Barbera – Figurative Artist

When in elementary school, a teacher once quipped, “you’re not an artist, are you” and even though I loved drawing and painting, those words discouraged me. I never really tried becoming better, all along looking at the other student’s artwork with envy, with the words, “you’re not an artist” … “you’re not an artist,” echoing in my brain.

After spending more than 30 years working in the film industry, I found myself searching for a new passion. After being introduced to the works of Lucian Freud and Egon Schiele, to name just two, this search rekindled my desire to be an artist and drew me into the alluring world of painting the human figure.

Even though largely self-taught, painting has given me a new and unique voice. More than any other medium I know, oil paints can make many amazingly different styles that can transcend all other art forms. I paint with brushes or putty knives in oil paint using vivid, contemporary colors to capture the models’ many abstract angles, shadows, and textures. I paint mainly nude figures studies that can be large and uncompromising or small and delicate. My models sometimes have a quiet, straight-forward pose that may make some viewers glance away, while others find themselves drawn even closer into the painting’s orbit.

“Man’s naked form…belongs to no particular moment in history; it is eternal and can be looked upon with joy by the people of all ages”– Auguste Rodin.

Original artwork and art prints are available on www.laurencebarbera.com. For commission requests or to be added to my mailing list for updates on future shows and exhibitions, you may email me: laurencebarbera@me.com.