Artist Focus: Barbara Schilling

“My paintings begin not with a subject, but with a feeling—a restlessness, a quiet knowing that something needs to be said,” says artist Barbara Schilling. “As a contemporary impressionist, I work with bold brushwork and vibrant color, not to describe the world, but to record its emotional energy. Light and atmosphere become my vocabulary; the landscape becomes a stage for something deeper and more personal.”

Barbara Schilling, An Uncertain Sky, oil on linen, 20 x 20 in.

Schilling has been working on what she calls her Dream Series for some time. “These paintings emerged from dreams, but they are not intended as literal illustrations of dream events,” she explains. “Instead, they explore the emotional truths carried within them, such as fear, longing, freedom, uncertainty, hope, transformation and resilience. The landscape became a language through which subconscious experience could take visible form.” Schilling points to paintings like Before the Thunder, Taking to the Wind and An Uncertain Sky, each of which “traces an arc of feeling that words alone cannot hold.”

Barbara Schilling, Taking to the Wind, oil on linen, 20 x 20 in.

This connection between image and language is also at the heart of Schilling’s book The Language of the Landscape, an exploration of how the visual world carries meaning, mood and story in ways that speak directly to our shared human experience.

She adds, “I paint to communicate a story that is not only mine, but one that can resonate with others.” Schilling is a member of Oil Painters of America and the American Impressionist Society. —