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Sunday, November 01, 2009
A Life Rich in Colors
By Aurelio Sanchez
Journal Staff Writer
Barbara Clark displays the breezy tranquility of someone who's found a richness in life, though it's not a richness she can put in the bank.
Clark, 52, was laboring as an accountant in the summer of 2006 when she decided she'd take a little break.
"I had been an accountant for a long time and I was pretty burned out," she says. "My plan was to take just the summer off and go back to my job in the fall, but then I took a pastel class and I knew right away it's what I wanted to do for the rest of my life."
Clark, of Corrales, is a featured artist at the Pastel Society of New Mexico's 18th Annual National Exhibition.
She discovered not only that she loved to paint, but also found that she painted well.
"Soon after I quit my job, I entered a piece in a local contest, and no sooner had I entered it when I wanted to go back and retrieve it so badly because I thought it wasn't very good," she says.
It was not only good, but good enough to win the competition. In a very short time, she's shown a proclivity for collecting trophies and blue ribbons.
At the recent State Fair at Expo New Mexico, Clark took first place in pastels with a piece called "Loma Larga II." She took fourth in pastels during last year's Pastel Society of New Mexico National Show.
She's quickly gaining notice, constantly improving her style and actively showing in numerous shows, says Julie Maas of Pastel Society of New Mexico.
Still, the single, affable Clark has come to realize there's a lot of truth in "struggling artist."
"I haven't bought a sports car yet and I don't have a rich 28-year-old boyfriend," she says.
"I do feel a different kind of stress, like making sure I have a roof over my head and worries about how I'm going to heat my house," she says.
"Painting has become a compulsion for me, and I'm happy doing it because it's what I was meant to do."
But before anyone gets any romantic notions to chuck his or her job and pursue artfully lofty ambitions, consider that it takes a lot of work to be successful, in any chosen venture.
"I work at this and I work hard, from the minute I get up in the morning to late at night, I'm thinking or doing art work," she says.
Clark loves the "luminosity" of pastels, but also is experimenting with acrylics and oils. She paints landscapes, figurative pieces and among her favorites are paintings of root vegetables. Entered in the upcoming National Exhibition is a piece called "Creepy Beets," scary veggies with eerily reaching, grasping tentacles.
Meanwhile, the "18th Annual National Pastel Painting Exhibition" opens Friday, Nov. 6, and will run through Nov. 29 at the Hispanic Arts Center at Expo New Mexico.
Jurors for the show are Robert Carsten, signature member of the Pastel Society of America; Clark Mitchell, an accomplished California plein-air painter, and Jimmy Wright, known for his large floral works in pastel and oil.
Jurors selected 140 paintings from 299 entries.
Award-winning paintings will be announced during an opening reception at 5 p.m. Friday, Nov. 6, with Judge Colette Odya Smith revealing the winners of $5,000 in prizes.
New this year is a juried show of "small works," paintings measuring less than 6 by 8 inches.
If you go
WHAT: Pastel Society of New Mexico's "18th Annual National Exhibition"
WHEN: Nov. 6-Nov. 29, hours from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays. Closed Thanksgiving
WHERE: Hispanic Arts Center at Expo New Mexico
HOW MUCH: Free and open to the public. For information, visit www.pastelsnm.org
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