View Barbara Ivey’s Artwork
“It is the love for the Southwest that I started painting. It is the people and their lives. Be it their pottery, their animals, heritage or the faces that show the past and future.
I was born in El Paso to parents born in New Mexico and their parents that broke the ground of the West. The spirit of those people sent me on my way to explore other places and people.
From our great country, to Africa the Massi, elephants, tigers and monkeys, Europe and its people, the Caribbean birds and howler monkeys at night, watching polar bear in the Hudson Bay. On trains, sail boats, ships and by foot. It is this spirit of the West that always brings me back home. Then I can’t wait to put these on canvas hoping that others might enjoy the feeling I got seeing all these great things in our world.”
Barbara Ivey’s strong Native-American heritage and a family history on ranches in Colorado and New Mexico inspire the western themes of her work. Creating powerful images of the land and people in bold rich color has created great success for this artist.
In her travels Barbara found watercolor easier to carry and she spent years perfecting her technique, participating in show and getting awards, teaching in Missouri, Texas, and New Mexico. A signature member of the Southwestern Watercolor Society she served as president of the 800+ membership for 1996-1997.
A trip to Kenya to meet her daughter coming out of Zaire for research, they toured the wildlife parks by train and truck. Barbara found a strong desire to paint the wildlife. Since then she has gone to Manitoba Canada, Alaska, Belize and reserves, National parks, zoos and road trips, finding subjects to put onto canvas. Awards include the Grumbacher Gold Medal, Daler–Romney Gold Medal, Artist Choice at the Midwest Gathering of Artists in Carthage MO, and finalist in Artist’s Magazine Art Competition of 11,500 entries, and many local shows.
Barbara and businessman husband Carl, have a home in the mountains of Southern Colorado where she has a loft studio, and a part time home in Texas. They have three daughters and six grandchildren. With the surrounding mountains, deer, fox, bear, turkeys and elk in her yard and the Native
American reservation nearby she is eager to paint these subjects. Now painting in oils she hopes to convey the feeling to others she gets with each painting.