Barbara A. Wood

First Love

Circa 1980

Barbara A. Wood (American, b. 1926) was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio. Raised by her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, the personalities and hardships within each woman became the catalyst for her art. As an only child and quite often bedridden with bouts of pneumonia, Barbara spent most of her time painting alone. She attended school in Toledo and graduated from high school with a scholarship to Traphagen School of Fashion in New York. Her instructors found her work so creative and expressive that they encouraged her to pursue fine arts. She enrolled and completed her formal studies at the Art Students League in New York. She later married and moved to Southern California. She began postgraduate studies at the Otis Art Institute and the Pasadena School of Fine Arts. Wood has had major one-person shows throughout the United States, Australia, Canada, and London. Her works are part of the collections of numerous celebrities as well as private collections throughout the world. Her paintings are in the collections of the King of Saudi Arabia, President George H. W. Bush, Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue, Elizabeth Taylor, Hugh Hefner, Jane Seymour, Jerry Lewis, Mickey Rooney, Dick Van Dyke, Dennis Weaver, Art Linkletter, Ron Howard, Gavin MacLeod, and many others. Artist’s Statement: Painting, to me, is a joy, a challenge, a fulfillment, and a love affair. It is a vehicle for expressing impressions I have drawn from a tangible world, where color is the music of painting.