Barbel Smith

Bärbel, trained in part at Alberta University of the Arts under William Parker, captures the Canadian landscape with a focus on emotive colour and line. Her work distills forms, layering glazes to create a luminous, spiritual quality. Rooted in experiences from coast to coast, her paintings emphasize light and atmosphere. Now based near Ottawa, she continues to paint full time, bringing depth and vibrancy to contemporary landscape art.Bärbel was born in Germany and immigrated to Canada with her family as a child. She has always loved painting, even early on – and the Canadian landscape captured a fascination within her. She grew up near Huntsville, Ontario with its numerous lakes, forest, hills and rocks. Here she spent her spare time sketching and painting.
Later she lived in western Canada and received her training through self – study and attending Alberta University of the Arts studying under William Parker. Her first show was at the Muttart Public Art Gallery in Calgary.

Since then, she has travelled from coast to coast capturing the colours, light, and joy in her depiction of the Canadian landscape; focusing on the emotive use of colour and line – erasing extraneous details and infusing her paintings with a spiritual vision.

Numerous layers of glazing give her paintings a glow – as if lit from within.
She was recently featured in a magazine article titled “Light in the Landscape”; has taught art classes for over a decade and a half and currently resides in a country home surrounded by forest just an hour south of Ottawa where she paints full time.