“Barbara´s unusual creative process, of working with ink on damp canvases to arrive at a rich and evocative artistic language, finds expression in a series of sensual paintings with symbolic and psychological overtones. Images and shapes, neither truly abstract nor truly figurative slide across the canvas, bleeding, staining, soiling, cleaning and mixing in a damp overflow without ever fully consolidating. The ink seems to take on a life of its own, flowing and extending over the canvas, creating forms that are pushed towards the edges of the composition so that the paintings themselves seems to be the work of natural forces. Her forms suggest, without fully defining, the female torso and sexual organs, tree trunks and branches, crevices and abysses, holes and wounds, creating a personal and above all feminine iconography which transmits self-confidence and freedom, restlessness and anxiety.” (Translated from the Spanish) Galeria Bennassar, Madrid
The paintings are the final act of a process which starts with a series of sketches and drawings followed by numerous tests and experiments using different types of canvas material and different concentrations of ink and sometimes bleach before I set to work on a canvas. Once I have started on a canvas it is constantly re-worked. It’s a process that can take days or months: I work the canvas then leave it to dry and then re-wet it using water spray and reapply ink, gouache and bleach or dye, time and time again, until finally I am happy with the result. The titles (Monday 11.15) indicate the exact time when I decide to stop re-working the canvas, leaving the ink to leave its mark creating forms on the point of both creation and destruction, symbols of both the transient and the indelible. Once the image has dried I iron the canvas, mount it on a wooden board, iron it again and treat it with a matt varnish to fix the image. Really the whole process is very domestic, echoing traditional female household chores which I normally find so tedious.
