At last June’s Bedlam Farm Open House, Rachel Barlow was selling her magnets and a few of her watercolors. She sold more paintings than she expected. Then at the October Open house, she sold even more paintings.
By then she had begun bring her work to craft shows and getting some shows in galleries. Now it seems like almost every other month, Rachel is having another show. And she’s selling her paintings.
Working a full time job, and being a wife and mother of two kids, she gets up early before work and drives through the Vermont country side to find what she wants to paint for that day. But Rachel also draws and paints every moment she gets in between the rhythms of everyday life. Rachel’s work is constantly evolving.
Her water colors are filled with emotion. Each landscape seems more like a portrait to me. Like she’s somehow captured a single animated living being in each scene.
Jon and I had a hard time choosing which painting to buy, and some of the ones we liked were already sold. Rachel does make prints of some of her paintings, so it’s easy to buy her work if you don’t get an original. We got one of each.
I’m looking forward to having Rachel and her work back at the Bedlam Farm Open House this June 25th and 26th.
You can see more of Rachel’s work and get to know her through her writing on her blog Picking My Battles. Rachel writes with humor and poignancy about her life, her family and her work.
