"Early Summer in Johnston Canyon, Alberta Canada," by Ross Barbera Watercolor Mounted on Canvas, 32" x 48" 2018

​The painting featured on this page is my most recent piece and is from a series dedicated to mountain streams and glaciers. It shows a view of that I photographed while hiking along Johnston Canyon  in Alberta Canada. The painting is mounted watercolor on canvas, and measures 32" x 48".

Until this most recent series of paintings, my work focused on the natural sunlight world of the Northeast landscape. Paintings range from extreme close-ups of pond surfaces, trees, forest floors, leaves and flowers,  to more encompassing views. Created an acrylic on canvas and watercolor on paper, they explore the visual interaction occurring  between streams, ponds and bodies of water with the surrounding landscape environments. Inspired by the interplay and rich diversity of textural surfaces, form and colors within these natural places, especially on water services, my paintings capture close-up views of intimate forest settings. Sometimes tiny worlds of subtle harmonies and rhythms are revealed where the recognizable becomes abstract.  Abstraction discovered in the microcosmic is the primary motivation for my flower paintings which are a more recent development and enable be to experiment  freely with composition, form,  and the painting's physical structure.

In addition to painting, I create jewelry using nontraditional materials. My jewelry can also be seen in this website. 

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