It is not enough to paint for beauty, serenity, and the love of nature, although all those influence why I am driven to put color on canvas. There are deeper reasons:

I work as a historian, to capture the essence of now, of this moment in time. A landscape is never the same from minute to minute. Light shifts, wind plays and weather rearranges. I have painted to capture the magnificence of an old towering tree next to a historic ranch, only to come back the following year to find the tree gone, the victim of a powerful storm.

Also, my artist's filter is doing its own rearranging. More and more, as I advance in my career, the colors deepen and the shapes simplify. Mystery overshadows sweetness; suggestion replaces precision. I not only want to capture what's there but also to explore my own inner worlds. The more I teach, the more I keep discovering new ways of expressing.

I think of art as alchemy: taking bits and pieces of materials and creating something of value. This value is in the hearts of the individual who comes in contact with the piece, but it is very real. Over the years, art has been the catalyst in my bonding with people and places I deeply treasure. When I see a person standing in front of one of my paintings, and see in his/her face that they connect and "get it," it's the most wonderful of feelings. I have said something to this person without words. It's a gift. And I never know when that will take place.

Barbara Lawrence