I grew up in Dallas, Texas, attended Oberlin College in Ohio, and then moved to New York City in the late 60’s to attend The New York Studio School, and to paint.  But after two years I developed “Painter’s Block.” Unable to paint, I turned my efforts to photography, and have enjoyed a successful career as a freelance editorial photographer, traveling extensively and shooting for major publications and corporations (see www.barcellonaphoto.com). But the feeling that I was really “supposed to be painting” never left me.

In 1997 I decided to get back on the horse. I put my photography career on hold, and enrolled in the New York Studio School’s 3-year Painting Certificate program. Re-attending the school was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made, but it was also surreal – the same building, many of the same teachers, it was like being allowed to go back into my life and take the other fork of the road, but this time with some life experience behind me.  Since then, I’ve been pursuing both painting and photography.
 
In 2006, I served as the official photographer for Brown University’s archaeological excavations by the pyramids in Giza. This month-long experience of working
away from the tourists, with the pyramids looming above, affected me deeply. When I returned to New York, I found my passion for plein air landscape and cityscape painting eclipsed by images from Egypt.  Since that trip, the body of work I’ve been making in my studio has been drawn from a combination of visceral memory of Egypt, photographs, sketches, and internal direction.  

The Governor’s Island Residency this summer marked a return to landscape for me, and to plein air. But to my surprise, although I greatly enjoyed being outdoors to work, I found that working directly in front of my subject had become difficult for me, the results too literal. So I finally decided to return to the studio, to use the plein air studies and photographs to develop images that felt more personal. I’ve been surprised by many of the images that have emerged, and look forward to continuing this body of work.  

More images can be found at www.barcellonaphoto.com

 

Checklist

1. Passing Memory 1, 2007, Oil on Canvas, 30 x 40 inches  

2. Study for Passing Memory, 2007, Oil on Canvas, 6 x 12 inches