About Barbara Akers (the lady on the left):

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As a child, Barbara was always coloring (must stay in the lines!) and drawing. She didn't take any art classes until college and then only to have a break from all of her science classes. For the record, she took beginning drawing, two pottery courses, and experimental jewelry, but then did nothing but an occasional pottery class for about five years.

 

During a period when she was suffering from mild depression, she returned to art and found a class in an adult education setting and took up a brush. She chose acrylics and was terrified of painting since her first love is and was graphite. She had never really done anything serious with pigments. Luckily, she found that she picked it up quickly and developed as an artist. Most of her work is very detail-oriented and she still loves doing that, later found a class being taught by a wonderful watercolorist, Margaret (Maggie) McCarthy. Under her patient tutelage, Barbara finally loosened up her style in watercolors. It was a breakthrough! Now she’s experimenting with them in combinations of detail and loose, and crossing that over into acrylics.

 

She admits to dabbling in a variety of mediums, including pastels (very much like drawing at times), color pencil, wood carving, woodburning, and her latest foray is into sculpting with clay. She thinks she is going to stop there because she’s running out of room for all the different supplies!