Although I have worked in almost every 2D medium, I focus on acrylics and mixed media because it offer me the best of all worlds – immediacy, flexibility, joy, angst, creative exploration with tools, and (most importantly) unexpected surprises.
I work in textiles, creating textile paintings that are quilted with hundreds of colored threads.
My medium is photography. Photography keeps me involved in seeing, observing, reinterpreting the world as I move through it, watching the light, the people's faces as we interact in casual conversations. Lately I have been photographing nature where there are not people, only light and shadow as it moves on the landscape of trees and water.
Being self-taught means that nobody is warning you about all the things you shouldn’t do, and the trial-and-error path is full of wrong turns and blind alleys.
My process is unusual. First I throw my pieces on a wheel. Then I create a pattern using a vertical, horizontal, and diagonal grid, afterwards removing the top of the vessel so that I can get my hand inside. I cut through the wall and move parts of the clay pattern, changing the angles of the various connecting planes.
As a portrait and landscape photographer, I look for special moments to capture – the scene, emotional values, time of day, the light.
I start with a question or feeling about the environment, then study data like maps and satellite images. I go into the field with my camera — sometimes using materials like wildfire charcoal — and create images that combine data with personal observation, helping people see and feel environmental changes.
Barbara McFadyen Iron Feather Studio - jewelry - Chapel Hill This is one in a series of posts about artists in the Orange County Artists Guild.IMPORTANT: Barbara's address and telephone number in OCAG's tour brochure are incorrrect! Here is the correct information:Iron Feather Studio2223 Mangum CourtStudio #74bnmcfadyen@gmail.comwww.barbaramcfadyen.com919-280-8672 How did you get interested in metalsmithing? I was the youngest of three…
NOTE: Steven Silverleaf is participating in the Studio Tour on both weekends. Find him at Studio #47. This summer, I spent the month of August in residency at Tenjinyama Art Center in Sapporo, Japan. I had done a residency in 2023 and was in need of a working space and they let me know that if I would apply they…
Painting - Carrboro This is one in a series of posts about artists in the Orange County Artists Guild. “April Afternoon” What is your medium? Why do you love it? I paint with acrylics and love its versatility. Unlike oils, it dries quickly and is great for painting 'alla prima' or all at once, as the Italians say. One can…