I live in Carmel-by-the-Sea on California’s beautiful Central Coast. I walk to my studio every day, which is in a historic church in our town surrounded by a garden. After decades of living in San Francisco, moving to this world of ocean mists, ancient cypresses, and year-round flowers in cottage gardens triggered a huge shift in my psyche and work. I found myself irresistibly drawn to using the natural world as my subject, and I now spend my days painting large-scale flowers. I feel as if I am living in an enchanted land (which I suppose I am). 

 Meditation and ritual seem like major parts of your studio practice. Can you tell us more about that? 

Thank you for asking this! Meditation, ritual and mindful seeing are the underpinnings of my art practice.  At the same time we moved to Carmel-by-the-Sea, I committed myself to a daily meditation practice.  The fruits of my meditation practice—a heightened awareness of the present moment—follow me into the studio (and the rest of my life). When I am painting the intricate folds and undulations of a flower petal, I can give myself up fully to the wonders and meaning of its beauty. Sometimes I feel as if I have fallen inside the flower and can feel its very life force.  

I am a slow painter by intention and choice. I paint in glazed layers so that the light passes through the paint and creates a luminous surface. The gifts of slow painting and of mindful living are similar: they allow us to calm our minds, perceive more deeply and perhaps discover some hidden truths that are always right before us.  

I need to add that my painting and meditation practices are always accompanied by tea. The ritual of boiling the water, pouring it in a slow trickle over the tea, and then holding the warm cup in my hands is pure pleasure and comfort. Green tea is my passion and I make a mean matcha latte. Come to my studio for a cup of tea and a chat about art and life! 

What does well-being mean to you? 

I used to believe that I should be able to organize my life so that I would never feel stressed or rushed or overwhelmed. Maybe I need a new planner? A new book on productivity? My meditation and slow painting practices have taught me that serenity and harmony have little to do with what I am doing. They have everything to do with how I am doing what I am doing. Well-being for me is a state of harmony in which I am fully present in each moment: painting a flower, doing the laundry, sitting in traffic, pouring tea, shopping for groceries. I’m not always able to feel serene but I now understand that the answer doesn’t lie in what kind of project management system I use. The key to well-being is waking up to the present moment and just being with it.

Your current series, Flora Portraits, depicts hyperrealist flowers in stunning detail. Why the choice of focusing on the minutiae of these flowers? 

I can explain this best by telling the story of my painting titled “The Phoenix Rose.” 

A few years ago, I was asked to create a painting for a home on a vineyard in Sonoma, California. The homeowner and his wife lost their previous home during the devastating 2017 Wine Country Fires. They barely escaped with their lives. Everything on the property was destroyed and the only things that survived were the vineyard vines and one rose bush. Even more tragedy followed when the wife died several months later. But then something amazing happened. That single rose bush began to bloom gloriously. The homeowner decided to build a new house on the same site and asked me to create a 6-foot painting of that rose bush for the house. I took hundreds of photos of the roses to use as references for my painting, but I didn’t want to paint an actual replica of the rose bush. I wanted to capture the strength and resilience of this beautiful plant. We titled the painting “The Phoenix Rose,” because it literally rose out of the ashes. 

I believe that flowers lure us in with their beauty and then offer powerful lessons of hope, renewal and strength within seeming fragility.

What do you hope to reveal for a viewer through your work?

I want to reveal this secret: if we slow down enough to really see something—a flower, for instance—then we will see more than just the surface beauty of the flower.  We might actually be able to see into the very mystery of life on this earth. Looking at a flower can transform your life. It certainly has with mine.

Tell us more about your upcoming exhibition at The Monterey Museum of Art.

The exhibition at the Monterey Museum of Art is titled Flora Fauna. It will feature my Flora Portraits side-by-side with the drawings of Susan Manchester. We happen to work in side-by-side studios in Carmel-by-the-Sea  and our artistic friendship is a deep one. We share a reverence for the living things on this earth and hope that our art will inspire an awareness of the wonders of our precious planet. The exhibition runs from December 8, 2022 – April 16, 2023.  

Website: https://www.elizabethbarlowart.com/ 

Instagram: @elizabethbarlowartist