Barbara Rainforth continues to bridge the divide between abstract and landscape paintings. Her intense colors add a surreal layer to the work, which turns landscapes to dreamscapes that may belong to her or the viewer.

Precisely structured, yet vibrant with color and gesture, the paintings challenge viewers with the tension that resides in experiencing the real and the imagined all at once. The initial impact of the paintings often suggests a real place, yet the features become shapes and lines abstracted beyond any real depiction.

In essence, her canvases convey the energy of a place, long after the details fade away or are transformed.

“I am fascinated with structure and composition as the armature on which to hang the color.  So as I paint, I ‘build’ a painting with solid composition which I can push and pull the color around and through toward realism and back again into abstraction.”

“These recent paintings exploring distant hills and forested slopes – two very different kinds of places – allowing me to stretch my perceptions to include spaces which invite intimacy, pulling us in among the trees or distance, backing us up to take in the expansive mountain vistas. It’s such an organic metaphor for where I find myself these days.”