Barbara Mallon

See more of Barbara's
art at her
Website
and visit
Waxing
Rural, her mixed media encaustic blogspot

Barbara Mallon creates abstract artwork that layers natural environment and man-made icons together to make unique statements. Her inspirations arise from the mixing of local cultures, landscapes and even some of the trading influences of the Pacific Northwest where she grew up.

Barbara works mainly with a bright but neutral palette in her encaustics work and this combined with strong patterns, shapes and lines yield a graphic quality to her finished works. Her main challenge is to control the compositional elements, which are often chaotic, to deliver paintings that are original and surprising.

Her paintings reflect a fresh symbology while she makes visual statements with unusual media and tools. Lately she has been incorporating thread and stitching patterns into the background surfaces of her encaustics and collages, acknowledging the local fiber arts culture. Her encaustic works have a primitive tribal feel that allows her to incorporate non-traditional items such as beads, gold, silver and copper foils and colored shellac into 2 and 3 dimensional surfaces.

Barbara, who originally received a minor in Biological Illustration to complement her BS in Marine Biology from the University of Washington, has been a professional artist since 2000 and now resides full-time on the Long Beach Peninsula.

Barbara is a member of Trail's End Art Association and can be contacted by EMAIL