Emotional Power

Using masking fluid, overlays and washes, Joanna Barnum delves into the realms of multifaceted facial expressions and colorful visual drama.

For award-winning watercolor artist Joanna Barnum, experimenting with masking fluid in preparation for a painting class she was teaching led her toward a more complex rendering of the human presence than simply presenting a likeness of a person. “Something about the negative shape of that brushy masking fluid stroke was so exciting to me,” she says. “I loved how it was the negative shape of a positive brushstroke. It seemed like an interesting way to add experimental elements to a portrait painting—or maybe even an opportunity to insert additional imagery—and I started exploring that through portraiture.

“Layered and spliced portraits seemed like an opportunity to explore contrasting expressions and emotions,” she continues. One of the first pieces she completed was Rift, a self-portrait that overlays two versions of her face—one calm, the other fraught and angry. The viewer understands that feelings and emotions aren’t always reflected on the face; a serene expression may conceal an anguished state of mind. “I’m someone who doesn’t handle conflict well or show a lot of outward negative emotion,” she says, “so I’ve found exploring stronger, louder emotions in my portrait paintings to be extremely cathartic.”

Beyond her expressive portraiture work, Barnum explores a broad range of subject matter. Her long-standing fascination with Halloween has inspired many images in her portfolio, including Lanterns Burn Bright, a compendium image from which she made printed vignettes that collectors could put together to create the whole image. “It was sort of like a Halloween advent calendar,” Barnum says. Pandora’s Pumpkin is another ode to the October 31^st holiday. We’re pretty sure that Edgar Allan Poe, the king of stories and tales of the mysterious and the macabre, would approve.

About the Author

John A. Parks is a painter, a writer and a member of the faculty at the School of Visual Arts, in New York City.

Meet the Artist

Joanna Barnum was born in Greenwich, Ct., and raised in White Plains, N.Y. She graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art with a degree in illustration and has since pursued a career as an illustrator, fine artist and teacher. Her work has garnered many awards, including the Carl Folk Sahlin Medal in the American Water-color Society International Exhibition. In 2016 she was a member of a small group of artists invited to create work inspired by the James Webb Space Telescope for an exhibition at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. She’s a Signature Member of the American Watercolor Society and the National Watercolor Society, and served on the board of the Baltimore Watercolor Society for nearly a decade. She makes her home with her husband, Mike, in Harford County, Md.