Barbara Berlin

Hello and welcome : I have been making and showing and selling art for 50 years!
During the 60’s while residing in New York City I was seduced by the abstract expressionist movement....and it was then that I decided to paint. My techniques are self taught -early on I gave up brushes and scoured hardware stores for tools. When the canvases were too large for easels I started working on the floor[now I use a raised platform] I purchase raw cotton duck canvas which is first stretched on heavy duty stretchers[stapled on the back therefore making frames unnecessary] 3 coats of Gamblin gesso are then applied and sanded. Most of the oil paint and mediums are made by Gamblin. Each fresh canvas brings the joy of creating..going into the unknown.There is often chaos out of which many ideas evolve - the work is about itself and the ideas come only through the process. I create by using my emotions- I am inside that moment of creating, I am present and the world disappears. I always try to go beyond the familiar, to find balance between the elements of soft/hard and circular/straight. I try not to judge, I try to let go of ego, I try not to take it all too seriously, I try to have fun and I try to feel the joy in the process of creating.

1962. McGill University. MFA
1963. MacDonald College, Teaching Degree
1965-1968. Museum of Modern Art, New York City
1968-1970. New School, New York City
1971-1979. Saidye Bronfman Center
1993. Haystack Mountain School, Maine
Monoprint Workshop
1994. Santa Fe Institute of Fine Arts, Santa
Fe, New Mexico, Juried Workshop,
Paul Jenkins

Solo Exhibitions:

1981. Church Gallery, Ottawa
1994. Waddington and Gorce Gallery,Montreal
Montreal
1997. Waddington and Gorce Gallery,
Montreal

Group Exhibitions:

Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Art Gallery
Hadassah Wiso, Annual Art Auction
Council of Jewish Federations
FACT.Laguna Beach, Contemporary Art Space