My art is, and has been, the result of visually and emotionally responding to the world around me. Painting and drawing from direct observation stimulates my imagination, heightens my subjective and objective experience, and frees my hand.
The Chicago Landscapes are work that focused on the intersection of architecture with nature within the context of the Chicago style bungalow and two-flat filled neighborhood where I lived for many years, created while residing there. An abiding love of painting landscapes - outdoors on location (en plein air)- inspired me to look to my immediate environment where buildings, cars, streetlights and electrical wires soon became part of my visual vernacular; combined with nature and light, I found a subject that continues to hold my interest.
This series consists of many views from my windows, doors, as well as those down the street and around the neighborhood from my home. At times, it is just a wall with windows and foliage that changes constantly - and that I see daily.
My artistic impulse is to see the beauty and extraordinary within the ordinary. Combining the seemingly permanent with what appears to be ephemeral, is compelling to me both aesthetically and conceptually.
Barbara Yaross
2012
