Barbara Powell

Born in Melbourne in 1927, Barbara Powell (nee Lambert). Her parents moved to Sydney shortly afterwards.

Barbara attended the East Sydney Technical College in 1942 and studied for three years, after which she did lettering and life drawing for another two years at night. She was most influenced by GK Townsend and Eric Roberts and was attracted to the latter’s love of beauty and absorption in the art of lettering.

Barbara lived in Sydney until 1952, when she came to Adelaide with her husband and children. In Adelaide, Barbara continued the career in advertising and package design that she had begun in Sydney. The falseness behind advertising had always made her uncomfortable and eventually she left this, for her, soul-destroying commercial world to concentrate on her painting. To break the tight, precise way of working characteristic of commercial art, Barbara discarded brushes for a time, using instead large strips of cardboard.

Barbara was a member of the Citizens Art Group from 1982 and joined the RSASA in 1962. She was elected a Fellow in 1968 and to the Council the same year and the Selection Committee. Asa member of the Citizens Art Group, Barbara helped to found The Advertiser Open Air Art Exhibition in 1955, with Connie Offler (later an Honorary Life Member of the RSASA). The exhibitions were held initially in the Elder Park Soundshell and ran until 1992.

Barbara was widowed in 1965. In 1975-76 she studied a new approach to painting based on the work of Dr Rudolph Steiner, first at Emerson College in England and then with Gerard Wagner in Switzerland. Consequently she developed a new personal style based on Steiner’s “veil painting” technique. Numerous collections world-wide contain examples of Barbara’s work in this style.

She was an honorary guest tutor at Torrens CAE for eight years and also gave demonstrations at the RSASA and for other groups in Adelaide, other cities and in rural areas. Her largest works dated from 1986, when she was commissioned by Warrah Rudolph Steiner Curative Home in Dural, NSW, to produce three watercolour murals, the largest of which was 12.2 x 2.1 metres.

The RSL also commissioned her, in 1995 to produce a painting commemorating both those lost in action and those who served on the homefront to mark the 50th anniversary of the ending of World War Two. The painting now hangs permanently in the foyer of the Adelaide Town Hall.

In 1987 Barbara, with Vivienne Newcombe, conceived the idea of an arts-eco village. With the architectural expertise of John Maitland and after thirteen years intensive work, the Aldinga Arts Eco Village was finally operational by 2000. This project was awarded the Nature Foundation Good Business Environment Award, Leadership and Services category, in 2004-05. Earlier, in 2001, Barbara and Vivienne received a Commonwealth Recognition Award for Senior Australians for their work in establishing this village.

Barbara has won three first prizes: the Repatriation National Art Contest (1968); the Caltex Vintage Festival Art Competition, Griffith, NSW (1973) and the Glenelg Apex Club Art Show (1996). She has also won many commendations and merit awards in other major competitions.