About Kristen Barron - Visionary Plein Air Artist

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Kristen started drawing at the age of 4. From that time on she could be spotted with a sketchbook in hand. When she was growing up she loved exploring the nearby hills, fields and farms and worked on capturing what she saw and felt in nature with pencil, then later in oils.

After leaving school, Barron moved to London, England, where she lived for several years -- working during the winter months and taking the summer months off to travel through England, Wales, and the wilds of Scotland. After returning to the United States, she continued to travel extensively throughout different parts of the world -- all the while, drawing and painting the lands she explored. Forced to travel light, she found it difficult to continue painting in oils and switched to watercolors because of their “portability” and filled many sketchbooks with paintings of her travels over the years. In 1987 she finally settled down, married her husband Jon, and moved into her beloved hills on the edge of Los Angeles.

After years of painting in watercolors, she once again longed for the richness that only oils can give. Returning to oils Barron was able to give her vision true expression.

Primarily self taught, Barron has spent years formalizing her training in study with other artists, by attending classes, and participating in workshops. During her years in England she took residential painting courses with the Royal Watercolour Society. Additionally, Barron completed formal academic training at the LA Academy of Figurative Art. Her most important influence, however, has been her teacher and friend Adrian Gottlieb, the renowned naturalist painter and portraitist. He opened up a whole new way of looking at color and form for her that she has reinterpreted for use in her visionary landscapes. Barron continues to learn and explore new ways of expressing herself. She now spends most of the year painting the landscapes of Southern California -- rich with variety and life.

Kristen Barron is at the forefront of the “Visionary Plein Air Movement.” As one of her collectors said, "Her work is not just painted from life; it is infused with it.”

For many years, Kristen Barron has quietly, but steadily, been building a presence in the international art community. As a former officer in the National Watercolor Society in the United States and a Friend of the Royal Watercolour Society in England, she has painted with and exhibited with some of the greatest living artists in the world today.