Traveling and art have always been essential to the life of artist, Kathy Barr. As a child of an officer in the U.S. Army, she lived in Germany, Colorado, Arizona, Virginia, Kansas, Taiwan, and New York before her father retired and the family settled in Colorado. Each move brought her new experiences, people, landscapes and cultures. Recalling her first oil painting lessons in Taipei, Taiwan, she says, “I realize now, that parts of my ‘wine bottle and glass on a stool’ painting were mine, and wonder how much my teacher helped. Some sections were a bit too good for a nine year old.”

After graduating high school in Grand Junction, Colorado she took off with friends to San Francisco, California for the summer. There she enjoyed the energy and explosions of color that were used in the graphic styles of posters and other art. In Denver, she met her future husband and moved to Wichita, Kansas. He was a writer, but with both of them working ‘day jobs’ they turned more to collecting than creating. After his death in 1998, Kathy returned to the mountains. Since then she has lived and worked in Santa Fe, New Mexico and Houston, Texas.

Her wanderlust continues and she has traveled Vietnam, Japan, Costa Rica, and the United States visiting museums, galleries and meeting artists creating in many mediums. She is inspired by the vibrant colors in the marketplaces, the architecture, flora and fauna, as well as the mountains and open sky in the high desert of New Mexico.

A very close friend and artist, Angela Van Every Johnston, encouraged her to return to painting and she joined her friend for a week long workshop. It was the impetus that made her jump whole-heartedly, back into painting.

Kathy focuses primarily on abstract landscapes using acrylics with texture, layers and glazes to convey energy, feeling and her love of color. She is a Reiki Master and has studied hypnotherapy, dowsing and other methods of focusing energy and the mind. It is her understanding of the unseen power of the universe, though still incomplete, that she brings to her work.

Volunteering with the Santa Fe Artists Emergency Medical Fund brought her in touch with many local artists. Her work was auctioned in the last two events.

As her career has developed she has heard comments such as, “There is energy in her work that connects with me.” Long time Santa Fe resident and owner of Santacafé, Bobby Morean says, “If we had art in the restaurant, it would be Kathy’s.” Her work is displayed in his home.It is also found in various hospital and corporate oil industry settings and private collections in Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas, Virginia, Washington, and Costa Rica.