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Nurturing Creative Magic
Written By: Donna Rhodes | Issue: November 2024
For Cover Artist Barbara Sallows, the beauty of the Highlands-Cashiers Plateau is an endless pool of inspiration.
Nature’s garlands of greens, golds and glorious grays, stretching from Highlands to Sapphire Valley attract flocks of fascinated artists, every one unique in their artistic appreciation.
Barbara Sallows is most-decidedly a one-of-a-kind artist who answered the Western North Carolina mountain call. In her seventies, she’s discovered and nurtured her creative magic. The painter’s world became her art-ster.
“My painting journey began in 2005 with an instructor who loved Southwestern art,” she says. “Our medium was oil initially, but over the years my class instruction took me into acrylic and watercolor.”
In 2018 she relocated from lowland Dallas to a 4,000 foot high mountain.
She says, “The beauty and serenity of our area inspires me every day to paint our lovely landscapes, waterfalls and wildlife. I continue to study with David Berger, owner of Mountain Mist Gallery.”
Her skill and confidence have grown tremendously. The word, mountainy, fits her work perfectly. She loves painting nature (landscapes, bears, mountain-scapes, etc.) on surfaces related to our environment such as boards, panels, and wood of various types.
She just finished an oil painting of Fairfield Lake and Bald Rock, commissioned by a South Carolinian client who was a counselor at Camp Merrie-Woode nearly 50 years ago. There’s something about that vista that burrows into your heart and memory for a lifetime. Barbara is drawn to capturing iconic images for those who commission her work. And she loves it when she captures what’s meaningful, powerful, and mountainy to the buyer.
A member of the Art League of Highlands-Cashiers, Barbara participates in their annual Fine Art Shows which occur spring and fall. She says, “My work has been shown at the Bascom in Highlands and at shops in Cashiers. Several paintings are for sale at the Sapphire Community Center, as well as the Maple Rose Gift Shop in Lake Toxaway.”
Plug into Instagram and Facebook at [email protected]. Prints of her work are available at FineArtAmerica.com.
If you’re interested in a commissioned piece, contact her at (972) 897-5889. Notecards and prints of
the Fairfield Lake painting are also available.
