Professor's paintings on display at McCormick Gallery
Feb. 10—MIDLAND — Midland College English Professor Nancy Barnard's paintings depict people who discover a joy one might not have easily known otherwise.
In her world, simple actions are filled with the colors of hope and she likes to use vibrant color relationships and continuity of edge to create a realistic but optimistic world for the people she paints for.
Examples of that can be seen at her current exhibition at the McCormick Gallery at Midland College.
The exhibition is opened until Feb. 27.
"In society, particularly now, there's a lot of negativity and people are also just isolated from each other, whether it's through social media or anything else," Barnard said. "I feel like sometimes — and this happened during COVID — I think sometimes in an environment like that, people start to realize how much we need each other and so my paintings are attempts to depict that. I use my colors to depict joy even though when I'm painting, it's just simple acts. It might be people talking or playing a game or other simple actions. ... There's no action in that story. It's just the joy through that we can find meaning and connections even if the context is really simple."
Barnard developed a love for art at an early age and pursued her interest in formal education, earning a Bachelor's Association in art and English from William Carey University in Hattiesburg, Miss. in 2013.
It was there when she fell in love with large scale figure painting in oils.
"These are paintings from I guess probably the past year-and-a-half," Barnard said. "I have some older ones in there. They're large scale, figure paintings. Most of them are between 24 by 30 inches in size. I like to work large. I like color and most of my figure paintings, I try to do one or two figures and they're about interactions. They're not portraits. I like to focus on relationships and connections. Some of my newer ones, they're in pairs. One side is from one individual's perspective and then I'll have kind of the same scene but from the other person's perspective. I'm experimenting with that."
Barnard went on to earn an MA in English from William Carey University but she's always had a passion for art as well.
"Art has always been an interest of mine since I was little," Barnard said. "When I was little, I was always drawing. I wasn't really into painting so much throughout my childhood and teenage years. I took some private drawing lessons in high school. Really, I always wanted to be an artist. I went college at William Carey and planned on being an art major but then English came while I was there. I took my first painting class while I was there. I discovered oil painting. The professor that I took class from was an oil painter so I discovered that medium. ... The figure painting part developed throughout high school. I actually did like graphite portrait drawings so I was interested in drawing the figure and then throughout college, developed into my own style of abstract and realist figure painting. After I graduated, I continued to paint and developed my body of work, even while I was teaching and it's been a love ever since then."
This is her first exhibition at Midland College.
"It is very exciting to see my work," Barnard said. "I was actually surprised and very happy when I was contacted about the show. It's kind of weird that I teach English and not part of the art world but art is just as much a part of me. It's a love that I have and it's exciting to see that up and have others be able to enjoy that as well."
Midland College Associate Professor in the Arts Department Michael Hubbard, who is also the college's Gallery Director says he's seen Barnard's work for the past two years.
"I've always been attracted to the really bright, bold, colors and I guess there's warmth to it," Hubbard said. "There's a strangeness in the colors that are put together but this also warms the familiarity and what I like about the show is that there's this connection to the people that you are presented to in the paintings."
He described the paintings as "very human."
"The closeness, a lot of the paintings show moments of connection between two individuals between people who are in the same painting or painting next to each other who have this connection in between them," Hubbard said. "That's always been something that's drawn me to her paintings. I think, particularly right now, there's a sense that we've spent a lot of time in isolation and been separated from each other for the past couple of years. I like, at this moment, having that display of warmth and community and family of people connecting with each other."
The McCormick Gallery hours are 8 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. on Fridays and closed on the weekends.
For more information regarding the McCormick Gallery or the exhibition, go to tinyurl.com/m8ahswxr.
If you go
— What: Barnard art exhibition.
— Where: Midland College McCormick Gallery.
— When: Now-Feb. 27.
