Barbara Kemp Cowlin

Barbara Kemp Cowlin is an acrylic painter who creates images of architectural spaces, water and flowers. Her drive to capture light and shadow, reflections, movement, and all things ephemeral is evident in each series. She builds paintings with rich surfaces of texture and layers creating depth and complexity. The happy accident is integral to her art making process. She works on multiple paintings at the same time, keeping her work fluid and energetic as she moves back and forth among paintings. She is a recipient of the 2019 Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation Individual Artist Grant. Her work has been included in the City of Phoenix Arts Collection; the University of Arizona Special Collections; Providence Medical Center in Everett, Washington; Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio; First Bancorp Headquarters in Troy, North Carolina.; Baylor University Medical Center, Houston, Texas; Edison & Sprinkles Architecture & Design, Vancouver, British Columbia; Grafix, Maple Heights, Ohio. Barbara Kemp Cowlin was born in Georgia and has lived on the west coast, east coast and in-between, as well as in Germany and Australia. She has spent most of her adult life in the southwestern United States. She earned a BFA in Printmaking and a Masters degree in Community College Education with a major in Printmaking from Northern Arizona University and has done post-graduate work at Arizona State University in Letterpress Printing & Bookmaking. She is a certified Golden Artist Educator. Art related work experiences have enriched her life and artwork and include stints as a graphic designer, arts administrator and as an art teacher at all levels from elementary school through college. She lives and works in Oracle, Arizona, painting in her studio most weekdays and some weekends.