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Barbara Stafford

Statement

The chance to hold on to a moment that has been totally absorbing is something that my art gives to me. For these last nine months I have drawn from the memory of what it was to watch the dawn touch minarets and listen to the first call to prayer around Istanbul. I found the late afternoon light across the lane where women gather their tea harvest on the Black Sea. The heat, the scent of pine, the blue of the Mediterranean. The sensual experience of such a place gave new life to my work. I consider soft pastel a bridge between drawing and painting. The intensity of color and softness of the medium are satisfying - the shadow of a pine, the shimmering Turkish blue.