Barbara Lussier
Barbara Lussier holds a B.F.A. degree with high honors from the University of Hartford where she studied with Rudolph Zallinger and Paul Zimmerman. She has also studied at the Ringling School of Art, Hartford College for Women, and the Lyme Academy.
Lussier has taught plein air painting privately and through various educational institutions, including the Lyme Art Association, where she is an elected member and served as president of the Board of Directors. Her work has been selected for exhibition at the American Embassy in Taipei, Taiwan, China by invitation of the American Ambassador.
Barbara is a signature member of New England Plein Air Painters, and an elected member of the Hudson Valley Art Association and the Rockport Art Association. She is also an elected by jury member of the Academic Artists Association and the Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts. Her work has been chosen for the Springfield Art Museum Academic Art Association Invitational Exhibition for September 2010. She has served as curator for The New England Landscape Invitational Show at the Lyme Art Association for several years as well as the Rockport Art Association membership jury and professional juried exhibitions. Her work is published in Great Day Trips to Connecticut’s Critical Habitats.
Her work has been exhibited throughout New England and internationally. She is represented in a number of corporate and private collections and has won numerous awards, including The Donald Allen Mosher Gold Medal and Award for Excellence in Traditional Oil Painting, Rockport Art Association, July 2019 for “All that Glitters, Does Not Stay,” the Aldro Hibbard Memorial Award for outstanding landscape at the Rockport Art Association, June 2019 for “Sunset,” Painting Award from the Connecticut Academy of Fine Art, the Awards For Excellence in Painting from the Rockport Art Association on numerous exhibitions and the Painting Award from the Academic Artist Association and the Sylvan Gallery Landscape. She received the Isabella W. Steinschneider award at the Hudson Valley Art Association Annual Show. In 2018, numerous paintings were awarded top 15% distinction by the Jury for theFine Art Views painting competition. “Snow Light in Vermont” was awarded first place at the Tolland Art Center Exhibition 2011. “Morning Fog” received second place at the Monson Art Association. Passing Storm was awarded Best in Show at the Tolland Art Association 2012 exhibition. Harbor Lights was awarded The Rubino Award at the 2013 Tolland Art Center. Pleasant Valley received the Bernard Corey Award at the Academic Artists Association Spring 2015.
Barbara is a philosophically direct descendant of the Old Lyme and the American Hudson River School painters, and approaches her subject in a way that embraces these traditions – honoring nature and working from direct observation. Her landscapes explore the romance of color and light and have been described as “poetry.” The daughter of a consummate fisherman and boater, Barbara experienced the mysteries and wonder of the sea while roaming the coastline of Nahant, Massachusetts as a child. She followed her father to the warmer waters of Florida, where he fished and boated and she attended the Ringling School of Art. Later, she explored the South Pacific coastline, where she was sometimes dropped by helicopter on uninhabited islands to paint pink rocks and turquoise waters. Currently, she divides her time between Texas and in New England.
Artist’s Statement: Barbara A. Lussier
The creative process: The moment of lucid insight that enables one to ascend to a higher plane, when observations are abstracted and forms become windows on the soul—this is for me the creative process. I enter each moment of work with a painting aesthetic, searching out places that, even if only for fleeting moments, address that aesthetic. Particularly by visiting farms, I find elements to explore that are central to the sense of aesthetic. The landscape also represents an emotional element, and landscape paintings are symbols of that emotion.
Artistic goals: In painting, I work to reveal the beauty of nature and to find light and color that best illustrate beauty. As Emerson observed, nature represents the world in its totality, from conception through the cycle of life. Transient light and ephemeral effects are at the heart of the nature of life, and it is these that I especially seek to capture.
Most significant accomplishments:
Class Valedictorian, University of Hartford
Elected Member, Hudson Valley Art Association
Elected Member, Rockport Art Association
Elected Member, Academic Artists Association
Elected Member, Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts
Elected Member, Lyme Art Association
Juried Member Copley Society
Reason to create art: My intellectual and painterly life are united in a passion for nature. I am a philosophically direct descendant of the Old Lyme and American Hudson River School painters, and I approach subjects in a way that embraces these traditions—honoring nature, seeking the paradise in nature and working from direct observation.
RECENT AWARDS:
Painting, Chasing the Light awarded top 15% distinction, Fine Art Views painting competition. First place, Tolland Art Center Exhibition
Second place, Monson Art Association
Best in Show, Tolland Art Association
Rubino Award, Tolland Art Center Exhibition.
Bernard Corey Award, Academic Artists Association
Donald Allen Mosher Gold Medal and Award for Excellence in Traditional Oil Painting, Rockport Art Association
Aldro Hibbard Memorial Award for outstanding landscape, Rockport Art Association
OTHER HONORS:
Governor’s Award, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands
PUBLICATIONS:
Book cover and text illustrations: The Aguiguan Expedition, Northern Marianas College
VIDEO PRODUCTIONS:
Art on the Farm, Lyme Art Association, Lyme, CT: viewable at https://youtu.be/CDhXcvCAA18
EDUCATION:
Lyme Academy, Old Lyme, CT
Emphasis of studies: fine art
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:
Graphic artist. Prepared animated drawings for film production.
RECENT PROFESSIONAL AWARDS:
Just After Sunrise By Jason Pritchard
Burying Hill Beach By Jason Pritchard
Over The Bridge By Jason Pritchard
