Artospective: Celebrating Life with Barbara Pence.

An Interview with Barbara Pence.

Who and where are you from?

I am a professional artist who since 2016 has been living in Austin, Texas.

How you got into this?

Until 2008, I was "self-taught", only having studied at a variety of workshops, but never in a formal academic art program. I left my job as an Executive VP at a major regional banking company in 1996 to dedicate myself full time to a painting career. In the year 2008, I began to study formally with Jeff Hein at his excellent Academy in Salt Lake City for a total of about three years. There I refined my skills in both drawing and painting, particularly related to the figure.

What is your driving force?

My driving force seems to be some kind of need to paint, and every new painting seems to be a new chance to finally "get it right", both from a technical and a conceptual viewpoint. Because I never seem to get there, I am constantly driven to start another new painting!

What kind of work you do and why?

My work is contemporary realism, using a classical style to express contemporary subjects. It is generally narrative, with a light somewhat humorous bent, even when the subject is relatively serious. My most recent series/obsession are small expressive portraits. I am especially inspired by the great Norman Rockwell.

Tell us more about your thought process.

I regularly take some time to try to think through possible new subjects for new paintings. I end up with not only a simple list of subjects I feel a special connection with, but a significant amount of detail about size, the necessary setup, colors, composition, etc. Most of my list is never realized, often because I end up losing interest in the subject or because some new inspiration comes along spontaneously to excite me. But my list never leaves me without ideas to get me going on that next painting.

Please share with us the one modern artist whose work you find Interesting and why?

An artist I find really interesting nowadays is Will Kurtz . He is a sculptor rather than a painter, using something like paper mache to create life-size realistic images of everyday people or animals, often displayed in narrative groupings. I love the wild color, the eccentric characters he creates, his sympathetic realism and its narrative content. His work is unlike anything I see being done today.