Wheatgrass Gallery: Artist of the Month

To know her paintings is to know Barb Hansen, the Wheatgrass Arts and Gallery's Artist of the Month, August 7-31. Barb's paintings not only share with the viewer her love of nature, but are also witnesses to the beauty of God's creation. Barb began her love of nature at an early age. Her father would take her on walks through the countryside pointing out the native plant species and local birds. He would teach her how to observe and identify her environment and their common names.

When Barb was a child, she would spend hours with her crayons drawing and coloring. In high school, she took art classes which piqued her love for the arts. When she moved to Poplar from Valley City, N.D., Barb was fortunate to be able to take oil painting classes. Once she and her husband Kenny settled in Glasgow, Barb's painting time was put aside until they were able to winter in Arizona. There Barb became a student of a college art professor, studying acrylic painting under his tutelage. She was inspired by the desert flora, which Barb came to appreciate as very much like the prairie flowers she had grown to love on her nature walks with her father as a child. Barb describes the geology as the southern desert in Arizona and the northern desert in Montana, each desert giving home to their own unique but similar species.

When asked why she paints, Barb smiled with a twinkle in her eye and said, "It simply makes me happy." Expressing her love of nature through her artwork, she invites the viewer to embrace God's creation, one flower, one bird, one view at a time. Barb prays that every child have the same opportunity that she had as a child, a childhood rich with art and nature.

All are welcome to Barb's Artist Reception at the Wheatgrass Arts and Gallery, 331 2nd Ave. So. in Glasgow from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Refreshments will be served.