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Game of Checkers
Artist Barbara A. Wood
Barbara Wood, mid 20th Century, from Columbus, Ohio.
"Afternoon Checker"
by Barbara Wood.
"Painting to me is a joy, a challenge, a fulfillment and a love affair. It is a vehicle for expressing impressions I have drawn from a tangible world, where color is the music of painting."
- Barbara Wood grew up in Columbus; graduated from Toledo high school; attended Traphagen School of Fashion in New York on a scholarship; at this school she discovered an expressive and creative ability that led her to pursue her talent on a different level in Fine Arts.
- With encouragement from her instructors,
Wood enrolled at the Art Students League
in New York, where she completed a formal
art studies program.
- Later in her career, marriage eventually took her to Southern California, but in order to develop her unique technique, Wood continued with post graduate art studies at the Otis Parsons Art Institute and then on to the Pasadena School of Fine Arts.
- Barbara Wood was raised by three generations of women and their personalities and her early childhood has influenced her artistic themes in different ways; as a child, she was often plagued by illness and spent many hours alone, dreaming of friends, so that these personages became the ones she created on the drawing board.
- Because Barbara Wood was alone so much,
her mother encouraged Barbara to draw and
paint, all the while she was on the inside
looking out at the world around her; this
childhood dilemma has evoked much of the
sensitivity in her paintings, lithographs,
serigraphs and Giclée process.
- For thirty years, she has focused on
women as her primary subject she has brought
forth a fresh approach in her reflection
of mood and intimacy of each situation,
capturing the essence of a moment others
have experienced; by probing the depths
of human drama and the plights of humanity,
artist Barbara Wood has offered in her
motifs a glimpse of the universal woman
dealing with the daily conditions that
surround her.
- Her artistic expression became an important
aspect of his being, of her life and even
if she was caring for one of her children,
she would find a way to nurture
her child and yet still fulfil her need
for creativity; motherhood was another
theme entwined within artist Barbara Wood's
themes.
- Afternoon Checkers by
artist Barbara Wood, clearly depicts her
artistic communication of the simple pleasure
derived in a common checkers game between
two people; in a unique and energetic style,
she has caught a decisive moment at the
checkerboard and filled the motif with
a vitality and life, yet at the same time
instilled a serenity, a poetic delicacy,
within the setting surrounding the checkers
play; her bold palette of vibrant colors
reinforces Barbara’s
individualistic, figurative style, that
is marked with a distinct imagination,
insight and love of her subject.
- Wood has drawn her viewer into the
imagery within the spirit of the game of
checkers in a way that (s)he can reflect
on or identify with the inherent symbolism
~ the artist message ~ the personal moment
depicted in the enjoyable game at the checkerboard
on this lovely, bright afternoon.
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