Barbara Shepard

I have a grounding in many techniques and processes and an academic training in drawing and painting from nature, architecture and the model. I also developed abstract approaches in my early work became often using mixed media, soft relief and 3d mixed media.

Gradually it got honed to painting and drawing, mainly due to studio restriction but also themes to do with the body started to emerge. I moved away from abstraction and in the late 1980's and early 1990's themes were to do with redefining the feminine and picturing the female nude from a female perspective.

My current work is concerned with different aspects of human expression and especially a different face of masculinity. It seeks to re-configure the male in art. I am interested in how this translates into the aesthetics of a pictorial image, creating beauty in composition, colour and mark making.

Taken from a close up perspective, they explore female desire and male vulnerability. The male model is the observed rather than the observer. It isn't an attempt to do a role reversal and objectify the male but to illuminate aspects of male character little seen on public view. Composed of close up parts of the body, the viewer is invited be drawn into the scene and ...

EDUCATION
1967-69 Goldsmiths School of Art, Univ., of Lond. Dip: AD: Painting and Fine Art Embroidery (incomplete)
1982-85 Manchester Univ, Bachelor Arts: Art + Drama with Dance and Community Arts.
1986-87 Manchester Polytechnic, School of Education.PGCE: ART. DES Ref: - RP86/43141
1987- 91 Bradford Univ, Dept of Soc Science, Master Arts - `Women’s Studies’ (Applied Social Science)
1993 The College of Cranio-Sacral Therapy, Lon. Cert in `Craniosacral Therapy`
1993 Calderdale Col, Hx. ITEC Dip: - `Anatomy, Physiology + Massage’ (p/t)

200l CSTA, Lon. Cert ‘Counselling Skills’. 4 days. E. Specterman
2002 Centre for Alternative Education + Research, Cornwall. Adv CST `Working with Insecurity’.
2002-3 College of Natural Nutrition, Salford Univ. Nat Nutrition. Barbara Wren.
2004 CSTA, Lon. Councelling and Supervision Course and Workshop. E. Specterman
2006 CST Ed Trust. Adv Course - Visceral Intelligence. Ged Sumner