Joan Barnum

Painter

"Path to Visny Woods," oil on linen, 14" x 11"

Let me introduce myself – I’m a New Hampshire native, born and raised, and an oil painter. A dozen or so years ago, when I deciding to try painting, I experimented with both watercolor and oils. Quickly, I realized that oils are my medium. Their forgiving nature allows me to endlessly scrape, wipe out, and paint over what I’ve put down, giving me the freedom to experiment and make mistakes.

When I first began to paint, it was all about the subject – I’ve always had a romantic, Currier-and-Ives sort of love for the New England landscape, so I wanted to paint white houses, red barns, and covered bridges. Gradually, though, I’ve come around to the realization that what really excites me is trying to see and paint the color of natural light, the way it influences the color of objects in light, and how ambient and reflected light affect the color of objects in shadow.

Once you begin to see how the light at sunset infuses everything with an orange

glow, or how cool light from the sky on a sunny day makes the shadows appear blue,

you can’t un-see it – the challenge is expressing that effect with paint!

Any object – a glass jar, an apple, a humble house or barn – is made beautiful when

illuminated by natural light. So, I try to paint from life as much as I can, which means

painting the landscape outdoors, and painting still life in the studio on the coldest

days of a New Hampshire winter.

Website: https://joanbarnum.com/