Barbara Hunter – The Silver Lining of the Pandemic
Interview by Vidabeth Bensen and Forrest Greenslade February 2024
Even though Barbara Hunter first tried her hand at oil painting just after high school, it took a global pandemic years later to ignite her exciting art career. To add to the excitement, her new studio addition recently achieved national acclaim when it won the Best in American Living Award from the National Association of Home Builders. When you visit the Barbara Hunter Art Studio, you will find an idyllic space filled wall-to-wall with paintings. You will also see in those life-like paintings how Barbara captures the beauty in the day-to-day, how she evokes feelings of wonder and joy, or a recall of precious memories and treasured times.
A native of North Carolina, Barbara completed her college education at NC State University while simultaneously juggling the demands of home and two small children. Graduating with honors in 1993 with a BA in Psychology and Human Resource Development, her early career interests were in Organizational and Leadership Development. While finishing her studies, Barbara also founded a small consulting firm offering meeting facilitation, training, and executive coaching for her clients. Her mission was to help address the challenges inherent with individuals and groups when working together. Barbara says, “My work was incredibly meaningful and I could never imagine retiring. At least not until we had a pandemic.”
After a 30-year fulfilling, and sometimes intense, consulting career, Barbara admits she relished the quiet reprieve of a global lockdown. While initially she passed the time with various tasks around her home, she quickly realized she needed something more to occupy her head and heart. Knowing time was on her side, she pulled out her oil paints, installed studio lighting in her garage and created a make-shift space where she could work, unencumbered by interruptions. Since in-person study was not an option, she also ordered books on art and oil painting to deepen her knowledge beyond what she already knew. In a week’s time she had finished several of the books, along with the suggested practices. It was then that Barbara knew art and oil painting would play a significant role in the rest of her life. Since then, Barbara has continued her studies with several professionally recognized artists and teachers, including Mark Carder, Dawn Whitelaw, Adam Clague and Abbey Ryan. She says, “The pandemic had a silver lining for me. It launched an unexpected second career that has been as richly satisfying and rewarding as my first.”
To give insight to Barbara’s process of painting, she says, “Drawing in proportion and being thoughtful about composition, values, edges, and color are each important technical aspects to focus on when painting. As an artist who paints realism, my goal is to portray real life subject matter just as it is. If the buildings are leaning from the passage of time, as they do in Italy, or the shadows obscure some aspects of what I see, that is what I paint.” When seeing her paintings for the first time, many exclaim “Wow – is that a painting or a photo?!!” This viewer reaction is another way Barbara defines success.
Barbara’s source of inspiration often comes from a photo that speaks of the potential of being painted, or a still life she has created specifically to paint. She says her reference photo library originates from her “propensity to literally take thousands of photos wherever I may be.” Alternatively, when she wants to paint from life, Barbara may spend hours choosing between various objects and fabrics she has collected over the years, often adding fresh flowers or fruit to curate a meaningful scene in her shadow box. She says, “By using my shadow box I can infuse dramatic lighting in the scene and illuminate focal points to help accentuate what matters most.”
Once Barbara has either selected a reference photo, or created the still life scene that she intends to paint, her next steps are to stain her canvas and then carefully draw what she will be painting on her canvas or panel. Once done, it is finally time to mix her colors and paint. When asked what it is she likes about painting, Barbara says, “I love the deep, rich colors of oils; I love their buttery feel and making marks with the brush in a way that conveys movement and life. Most of all, I love capturing contrasting lights and shadows in a way that illuminate the beauty – and the magic – of an oil painting.”
In addition to the Chatham Artists Guild, Barbara is a member of the Fine Art League of Cary, Oil Painters of America, Portrait Society of America, and American Women Artists.
Barbara Hunter will debut her award-winning studio and her Trompe L’oeil oil paintings the first two weekends in December during the 2024 Chatham Studio Tour. When you see her paintings, she says her greatest hope is that “my work will speak to you in a quiet, compelling way that has meaning for you — that you see beauty and that it evokes a cherished memory, a special moment, or a peaceful time.” Her work can be viewed on her website: https://www.barbarahunterfineart.com/ or on her Chatham Artists Guild presence: https://chathamartistsguild.org/artists/barbara-hunter/
