Julia Whitney Barnes is a multidisciplinary artist whose work combines elements from the human or built environment in surreal juxtapositions with nature. Symbolic objects, flora and the domestic spaces of her Poughkeepsie home and neighbors' homes populate Julia's current oil paintings and drawings on Mylar, in addition to imagery from past travels. Her boldly colored paintings are based on a variety of source images that are conjoined into unusual interiors and landscapes. Whitney Barnes works in the style of many Hudson River School artists who created composite paintings based on sketches from several days and locations distilled into a single image. Julia's painting based on Olana, the famed home and studio of Frederic Church near Hudson was created after many seasons of visiting the location. At first viewing, the painting appears to be one cohesive scene framed by a red and white awning, cobalt ceramic tiles and an ornately patterned floor. The painting can be read as a landscape reflected in a window with the viewer standing outside, or can be seen as a view through a window with the viewer inside of the house. Alluding to life cycles, the landscape transitions from a withered oak and threatening sky to a lush summer scene in the center and a springtime sunrise lighting a blossoming Magnolia tree.
"Church's Olana/Domestic Bliss" 2017, ink and oil on mounted mylar, pickled maple frame with plexiglass, 33" x 43"