About The Artist

I consider painting a meditation or an elegant taiji movement with each stroke an expression of being in the present moment.  As I paint, I am in communion with a deeper knowing that  allows each stroke to inform the next.  I just get out of the way.  My goal is to bring presence into the work.  Whether it be harmonious or garrulous, hilarious or severe, joyful or desperate doesn’t matter.  What matters is being with the medium, the color, and allowing it to inform me.  And it usually does.

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My work as an artist-painter is inspired by both inner nature and life around me.  I like to think of artists as trees, conduits between vast space and earth elements.  And as such, we have the capacity to bring opposing energies into harmony on the canvas.  In my work and life I strive to bring these forces together.

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The inspiration for recent paintings relates to my retirement and an exploration of solitude.  In my search to find the place of solitude within me, I stumble on all manner of expression even chaos, as seen in The Muses and Martyr series, learning that solitude can be vastness.  As the poet May Sarton says in her poem, Gestalt at Sixty, “  .   .  . solitude is not all exaltation .   .   .  solitude exposes the nerve.”  As in the portraits, which come quickly from some deep eternal well inside me and embody the gamut of our human condition.

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I begin with a line gesture which initiates the relationship that opens the door.  I love that moment – when facing the blank page, where all is possible. This moment leads me to the intersection of matter and inspiration.  The dance begins with each stroke informing the next. With my tools – brushes, rags, twigs, combs, palette knives, oil and solvent I strive to stay present, maintaining the initial zest and freshness of expression. I long for a spirit quality to meld with the mineral  ground of the paint.

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My work has been shown at the Live Worms Gallery, San Francisco; Sanchez Art Center, Pacifica; Cowell Theatre Bayfront Gallery, Fort Mason; Cafe Di Vino, Sausalito; juried shows sponsored by the Sausalito Art Commission;  At the Top Salon and Gallery, Mill Valley, San Francisco Open Studio, and Abstraction, L’exposition des Artistes de San Francisco au Palais Abbatial, Caunes Minervois, France.

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Special thanks to my teachers of old -Fred Reichman and Leigh Hyams UC Berkeley Extension and now – Glen Moriwaki, Andrew Leone, and Robin Kaneshiro, Community College, SF.

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Inspired by Jane Baker’s charitable selling of her art, I offer you a painting in exchange for a $300.00 to $750 donation to a charity/non-profit of your choice.  I hope you will participate in this journey with me.

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Barbara Sapienza