Barbara Wagner

Pages: 1 2 3 4

"In the Year of the Buffalo #1 "
36" x 40"
Oil on linen with Cambodian silk collage
framed
$4400

"In the Year of the Buffalo #2 "
30" x 36"
Oil on linen with Cambodian silk & bamboo & handmade paper from Laos
framed
$3800

"In the Year of the Buffalo #3 "
30" x 36"
Oil on linen with bamboo & handmade paper from Laos
framed
$3800

"In the Year of the Buffalo #4 "
20" x 24"
Oil on linen with Cambodian silk, bamboo, & handmade paper from Laos
framed
$2500

Barbara Wagner, a well known artist and teacher for close to 30 years in the Burlington area, now resides half the year in Vermont and half the year in Florida. Her work has been exhibited in numerous galleries in Santa Fe, Boston, Florida, and throughout New England. Her work is also in private collections throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. She has won numerous awards, including awards juried by the noted artists Wolf Kahn and Janet Fish.

“The gift of travel is to inform and sear the open mind,” wrote Gail Caldwell, book critic for the Boston Globe.* For me, travel has become an important source of artistic inspiration (not to mention cultural broadening), Turkey, Botswana, and elsewhere have offered opportunities to grow and refresh my artistic spirit. To both soar and be seared. In 2009, the Year of the Buffalo, Viet Nam, Cambodia, and Laos offered the latest transformation. The paintings in this show were completed in the months following my return. I am aware of two different subgroups in these paintings. One in which my observations are painted more poetically and symbolically, as I try to capture the spirit of these places and people. Bamboo, Cambodian silk, and handmade paper from Laos, are used in several of the paintings, as well as the triangle, symbol of the ever-present conical hat, the Nón lá (leaf hat) of Viet Nam. In the second group of paintings, I have incorporated a bit of recognizable imagery, sometimes whimsically. The bas-relief 500-year-old temple elephant wall at Angkor Wat, the elaborate and beautiful textile garments of ethnic groups, particularly the women of Sa Pa, and Cambodian silk elephants, all make their way into this group of paintings. Because the number five is so important in this culture, all the paintings incorporate five divisions as part of their structure. Always, and most important, I am interested in the differences and similarities among cultures, the interconnectedness between life and art. This culminates for me on my canvases.

Barbara Wagner

* Written in her memoir, “ A Strong West Wind”

To see additional images in our inventory contact us at mail@fsgallery.com or call (802)-985-3848.