About Me

Artist’s Statement

I am enamoured with mediums and subjects that flow and shift and change.  They mirror the best parts of life: ever expanding, growing and evolving, creating new paths and questions to explore.

A lot of my work is women centric, a reflection of who I am, what inspires me and what makes me wonder.

I love stories for their questions and answers, their comfort and disquiet.  Many of my paintings are inspired by stories, a dialogue with the subject built upon wisps of myths, legends and biblical references.  Tales that have familiar foundations but whose meanings can and should shift and evolve over time to reflect who we are now.

Natural elements underpin and flow throughout my paintings, with figures that are part of these elements, sometimes emerging, sometimes growing within.  The natural world is at once stunningly beautiful and alarming with its inherent fragility and capacity for both wild destruction and fostering of life.   It is a natural mirror of our own capabilities and frailties, mesmerizing in its details, intricacies and dualities. 

Artist’s Bio

Barbara Madden was born and raised on the west coast of Canada and has lived, worked and created in Northern Alberta since 1998.   She works with watercolour, encaustic, acrylic, oil, and pastel.  Her paintings capture movement and personal transformations inspired by natural elements: water, wind, waves and the natural drift and flow of paint.