Barbara Ursel

Barbara is an award-winning Canadian artist based in Ottawa, known for her masterful acrylics capturing light and shadow in everyday scenes. A Federation of Canadian Artists member, her work builds complex color through layered opaque and transparent paints. Barbara’s paintings invite viewers to engage deeply with the interplay of light, evoking personal reflection. Her works are held in public, private and corporate collections across Canada and internationally.Barbara is an award-winning Canadian artist, living in Ottawa ON. She’s an active member of the Federation of Canadian artists and her paintings are held in individual and corporate collections in Canada and internationally.
Barbara paints the light, and the shadows it casts, in everyday scenes to show the wonders she sees there. She invites viewers to enter into her canvases and muse about the people and places they see or, even better, let her paintings reconnect them with their own experiences.
Barbara paints in acrylics and alternates layers of opaque and transparent paint to build up values and complex colours on the canvas. She repeats this process dozens of times in a single painting to capture glowing light and intriguing shadows.

Artist Statement:
My paintings explore the emotional and visual character of familiar places.
I am drawn predominantly to urban landscapes: streets, buildings and the human activity within
them—not as subjects to be documented, but as starting points for exploring perception,
memory, light, and atmosphere. A particular place may inspire a painting, but then the painting
evolves through a process of simplifying, rearranging and reimagining what I see.
Light is central to my practice. It reveals and obscures, divides and connects, and continually
alters our experience of the built and natural environment. I am just as interested in the
shadows the light creates—the spaces between things, and the unexpected shapes and
relationships that emerge when familiar surroundings are transformed by changing light.
Working primarily in acrylic, I build paintings through successive layers of opaque and
transparent colour. I simplify architectural forms, vegetation, figures and other observed
elements into planes, shapes and painterly passages. As a painting develops, recognizable
places begin to move toward abstraction. I am interested in that point of tension where a scene
can still be identified, yet is no longer simply a description of a particular place.
My intention is to create paintings that invite sustained contemplation. I want the viewer to
enter the space of the painting, discover relationships between light, colour, shadow and form,
and, perhaps, recognize something of their own experience within it. The specific place that
prompted a painting matters to me but, ultimately, I am interested in what happens when a
familiar place becomes something more ambiguous, atmospheric and personal.

Collections:
Public, private and corporate collections in Canada and internationally. Public collections include the City of Ottawa Art Collection and the Baldwin Collection of Canadiana of the Toronto Public Library. Corporate collections include: La Maison Simons; Engel & Völkers Ottawa Central; and Proveras Commercial Realty Inc.

Selected Awards and Recognition:
2023: Accessioned into the City of Ottawa Art Collection.

2022: First Place Award Winner: Federation of Canadian Artists 365 Online Exhibition and Calendar Project
2022: Selected for 2023 Federation of Canadian Artists calendar
2022: Accessioned into the Baldwin Collection of Canadiana held by the Toronto Public Library at the Toronto Reference Library
2021: Selected for 2022 Federation of Canadian Artists calendar
2020: Award Winner: Federation of Canadian Artists 365 Online Exhibition and Calendar Project
2020: Selected for 2021 Federation of Canadian Artists calendar
2019: Admitted to active membership in the Federation of Canadian Artists
2019: Honourable Mention: Federation of Canadian Artists Annual International Mail-In Exhibition

Selected Presentations:
2022: “Our Town” at the opening reception for my solo exhibition at Koyman Galleries
2019: “Beneath the Surface … The Making of my Acrylic Paintings”, Presentation to the Kanata Art Club

Education:
Ottawa School of Art
St. Lawrence College School of the Arts
Big Arts, Sanibel, Florida

The artists I have studied with include:
Brian M. Atyeo, CSPWC, OSA
Mike Svob, SFCA
Andrea Warren, Golden Working Artist
Mary H. Klunk
Anne Barkley, SCA
the late Morton Baslaw, CSPWC, OSA
Selected Professional Affiliations:
Active Member of the Federation of Canadian Artists
Affiliate Member of the Federation of Canadian Artists Toronto Chapter
Arts Network Ottawa

Solo Exhibitions:

2022: Koyman Galleries, “Our Town” Exhibition
2018: Galerie Old Chelsea, “Market Life” (guest artist)
Group Exhibitions:
2023: Art From The Vault, TD Gallery Exhibition of selected works from the Canadian Documentary Art Collection at the Toronto Reference Library
2022: Art & Parcel 2022: holiday art show and sale of the Ottawa Art Gallery
2022: Federation of Canadian Artists: 365 Online Exhibition and Calendar Project First Place Award Winner and selected for 2023 Federation calendar
2022: Federation of Canadian Artists: 2022 Online Federation Showcase
2021: Federation of Canadian Artists: Chapter Challenge Exhibition
2021: Federation of Canadian Artists: Limitless Open International Online Exhibition
2021: Federation of Canadian Artists: 365 Online Exhibition and Calendar Project selected for 2022 Federation calendar
2020: Federation of Canadian Artists: Limitless Open International Online Exhibition
2020: Federation of Canadian Artists: 365 Online Exhibition and Calendar Project Award Winner and selected for 2021 Federation calendar
2020: Federation of Canadian Artists: 2020 Postcard Competition and Online Exhibition
2019-26: Koyman Galleries: Holiday Exhibition of Smalls
2019: Art & Parcel 2019: holiday art show and sale of the Ottawa Art Gallery
2019: Federation of Canadian Artists: Limitless Open International Online Exhibition
2019: Federation of Canadian Artists: Annual International Mail-In Exhibition, at the Federation Gallery on Granville Island, Vancouver, BC – Honourable Mention
2018: Art & Parcel 2018: holiday art show and sale of the Ottawa Art Gallery
2018: Wall Candy: Sweetly Affordable Art Exhibit at the Horticultural Building of Lansdowne Park
2018: Selections 2018: annual show of the Arts Network Ottawa at the Trinity Art Gallery, Shenkman Arts Centre, Ottawa
2018: Federation of Canadian Artists: Limitless Open International Online Exhibition
2017: Selections 2017: annual show of the AOE Arts Council at the Trinity Art Gallery, Shenkman Arts Centre, Ottawa
2017: Society of Canadian Artists: 2017 Open International Online Exhibition
2016: Art & Parcel 2016: holiday art show and sale of the Ottawa Art Gallery
2016: Open Studio, Ottawa
2015: Figureworks 2015 at Saint Brigid’s Centre for the Arts, Ottawa
2015: Petit Bill’s Bistro, Ottawa
2014: Open Studio, Ottawa