r By Rebecca Peery
Artworks by Payson resident Barbara Ward will be on display during May and June at the Peteetneet Museum and Cultural Arts Center, 10 N. 600 East, Payson. A reception with light refreshments will be held on Friday, May 6, from 6 to 8 p.m.
The museum is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. It is closed on Saturdays and Sundays.
Barbara Ward was born in a small rural town in Southern Alberta, Canada. She spent her youth outdoors where her favorite activities were hiking, skiing, riding her crazy Arabian mare across the prairies and swimming in the cold glacial Canadian lakes. Although she was passionate about art and drawing from an early age, her life took an interesting detour.
Her husband, a UPS driver, was laid up for several months because of knee replacements. Because of this, she was recruited as an art director in the commercial film world. She began to do architectural renderings as well as pick paint, fabric and floor covering. She became involved in landscaping concepts, signage, faux painting, design work, props, decorating and shopping. She was involved with feature films, commercials, industrial films and episodic television for 29 years. This experience, although it took away from her actual time pursuing the miles of canvas an artist is beholden to, gave her an opportunity to develop in color and design principles. It also gave her the ability to produce under deadlines and pressure.
After an accident sidelined her film career, she began to seriously attack the canvas with her brushes. Her work has most recently been featured in the Utah Women Juried Artist Exhibition and at Payson City Onion Days.rAlthough Barbara is mostly self-taught, she has been influenced by several contemporary artists, a few of which are Kathyrn Stats, Scott Christensen and Lindsey Bitnar Graham.rBarbara’s medium is oil. Her passion is plein air painting. Combining her love of the outdoors – the sights, smells and sounds found there – with the challenge of capturing an often fleeting moment of nature is her quest.rBarbara lives in Payson where she shares her five-acre mini ranch with her husband, four horses, one overactive border collie named Lennie and a pampered Westie named Lucie.
