I've had a lifelong interest in creating art, but like many, life and the need to make a living got in the way. Since retiring from the Department of Natural Resources, I now have the opportunity to paint! I spend my time painting in my studio at our home in Madison, Wisconsin and in Baileys Harbor. I've taken classes from some wonderful - regionally and nationally known - teachers at Peninsula School of Art in Fish Creek, Lake Mills Art Center, Chicken Coop Studio in Rock Springs, and the Huse Skelly Gallery - Balboa Island, California. My work is focused on landscapes near and far, using color and texture to convey movement and light. There is often a tension between a creative attempt to lay down a more abstract impression of what I'm seeing, with an underlying need to more closely "follow the rules" to create a more technically accurate representation. I paint periodically with the Dane County Plein Air Painters - a group of fantastic painters from the Madison area. I've participated in the Wisconsin Regional Arts Program - receiving honorable mentions and a statewide award for my paintings, and have shown my work at a number of shows at the Hardy Gallery in Ephraim Wisconsin. I work primarily in oils, with some work in oil pastels and gouache.
Barbara Zellmer