Lutz artist’s work selected for international exhibit

Elizabeth Fontaine-Barr always wanted to be a painter — whose works would sell and gain recognition for artistic excellence.

She got there, but it was no simple path.

She enjoyed drawing as a child. She won art awards in high school. And, in college, she obtained an art degree.

So far so good.

Then she realized something was missing.

“They don’t tell you how to make money when you graduate in painting,” Fontaine-Barr said.

Knowing there would be bills to pay as an adult, the New Orleans native had studied advertising design in New York.

She opened a store back home with another artist where they taught art classes to children and did custom picture framing.

Then she was a freelance commercial artist, and she went on to become the editor for a New Orleans hospital newsletter.

After that, Fontaine-Barr went into advertising sales, managed a rock ‘n roll band, and spent time in the health field. And during that time, she worked on film and video, serving as a production coordinator when she moved to Florida.

“I’ve worn a lot of different hats,” she admits.

Now, Fontaine-Barr, who moved to Lutz in 1990, wears the hat that fits her best.

She returned to painting and is selling her work.

She’s being recognized with admittance into the 18th Annual International Society of Acrylic Painters open exhibition, July 30 through Aug. 23, in Paso Robles, California. Her accepted piece, “Off the Path,” made the cut after being scrutinized by a juror, who examined all the submissions and accepted just 58 into the exhibition.

“Off the Path,” like most of Fontaine-Barr’s works, is a colorful landscape that doesn’t look like anything you’d see in real life.

She draws inspiration from real-life landscapes — often they’re vacation photographs — and puts them through the filter of her own emotions.

The result is an expressionist’s interpretation of the image. “Off the Path” is filled with vibrant hues and an expansive sky.

Unlike many of her works, it doesn’t have foliage to break up the scene.

The inspiration for her ISAP entry came from a photograph of a different painting of a landscape, though you wouldn’t recognize the painting or the original image in Fontaine-Barr’s art.

Once it goes through her creative process, all that’s left is her own impression of what she’s seen.

“Just because I’m looking at a photograph, it’s not going to look like that photograph,” Fontaine-Barr said. “It’s just a trigger for an emotion that I am trying to get down on canvas.”

Fontaine-Barr started getting back into painting around 2008, and it took some adjustment.

Like a blank sheet of paper can be intimidating to a writer, a blank canvas can be daunting to a painter, she explained.

When her creativity flows, she takes advantage of it while she can, coming back to a work periodically on a piece until it’s done.

And because she’s not replicating that particular landscape, it can be hard to tell where it’s going or when she’s actually finished.

“Sometimes, because I’m not drawing what I’m seeing, I don’t know how this is going to turn out,” she said. “It’s almost like the painting has to paint itself.”

Fontaine-Barr does the actual painting, and now she’s doing some selling as well. She estimates that she’s sold more than two dozen works, and hopes “Off the Path” will be another.

Still, it’s no fast track to wealth.

Once an artist factors in the cost to enter exhibits, ship the painting to the event and give the gallery its cut, a painter isn’t looking at a life of luxury, even if the work sells.

Fontaine-Barr won’t be attending the exhibition in California. Going there would add even more to the expense.

Still, being accepted into exhibitions is good for an artist’s resume, Fontaine-Barr said. In addition to the ISAP exhibition, she’s been accepted into regional and local events, as well.

Also, if an artist wants gallery representation — something Fontaine-Barr is considering pursuing in the future — it helps to have a proven track record of acceptance.

As she continues her artistic pursuits, she’s keeping up with her own family’s track record of creativity. Her husband, John, is a musician, and her daughter, Hannah, is involved in ballet.

After spending years in creative and noncreative careers, Fontaine-Barr is again finding satisfaction and success putting her own creativity on canvas.

“I finally came full circle back to my passion,” she said.

For more samples of Fontaine-Barr’s work, visit FontaineGallery.com.

Published July 22, 2015