“Toying with geography and time, I indulged my fantasies and narrowed the distance between my two homes, reveling in the power that the brush gives me to change my world. The torn pieces of old paintings often guided color choice and design or served to mark places that are dear to me.” Moving in and out of abstraction, spontaneous and planned images emerged and the terrain that evolved was kept deliberately vague in the hope that viewers might find their own stories.
”The Special Relationship” is a term that is used to describe the historic, diplomatic, and political connection between the UK and US. These paintings, however, represent a personal bond and one that may be familiar to others who have divided roots.
Barthell has a bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts from Northwestern University and a masters in Art Therapy from The George Washington University where she later served on the faculty. She has studied at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago, is an artist-member of the Virginia Watercolor Society, and is on the board of the Potomac Valley Watercolorists. Barthell has been an Art League member for 24 years and acknowledges the generous mentoring she has received from all her teachers, especially Susan Abbott, Ted Betts, Jane Simanis, and Marsha Staiger.