Middle Street Gallery: Home Page

Barbara Heile studied painting and received degrees (BA76 and MFA82) at American University in Washington, D.C. during a time when the faculty was still grounded and sensitive to the tradition of painting as embodied by artists who worked in a visual and refined expressive process.

She works primarily in oil and cold wax and began exploring acrylics in 2022.

Any medium that affords her a visual and painterly way into relationship with what she is feeling - and open to seeing - is her path.

Her approach is truly Aquarian in nature. Her work is original and she is open to the new; honoring of tradition she is not held by it. In earlier years the landscape had her full attention. This gave way to her interest in the abstract surface for its own sake, as expressive paint. The inner landscape of her felt sense is at present her main subject where new shapes come into painted form.

The paintings express joy and freedom and a depth of stillness through the healing qualities of color and light.

The directness and spontaneity of her approach, often using her hand directly to move the paint, can be felt in the surface and in the free interplay of color. She sees her way of painting as a path of expressive contemplation and is grateful for this way of loving the world as a visual artist.

Barbara has been actively showing in group and one person shows since the early 1980‘s and is a familiar face among artists in Rappahannock County. She enjoyed three years teaching Drawing and Painting at Lord Fairfax Community College in Warrenton, VA. Until its closing in 2015, she kept an active and open studio at River District Arts in Sperryville Her daily studio work now takes place at home.

Her natural call to painting supports her wish to share the experience of the mystery we all live in as human beings. A lifelong meditation practice supports the silent depth you can experience in even her smallest paintings. Her paintings have found homes around the world.

Being the mother of three independent and creative sons, raised in Rappahannock County, is by far her most rewarding life experience.

Barbara keeps an active diary of her work in progress on Instagram @bheileart ~~~thank you for looking! ~~~

DHARMATA KOAN - 69
(Olmec)
28" X 42"
Digital Collage Realized As
Archival Pigment Print
$850

The artist's challenge: imagine a Zen koan, not as an unanswerable spoken question designed to provoke an enlightened state, but in purely visual terms. This dual-paneled selection is from a series of diverse thought-stopping, or, depending on the viewer's state of mind, thought-provoking compositions.

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Jim Serbent
GANSEKI KOAN - 2
24" X 36"
Digital Collage Realized As
Archival Pigment Print
$650

Faces out of the distant past along with cultural icons peer out of sea-eroded rocks to confront viewers as reminders of their own mortality. One observer remarked, "These rocks too will eventually turn to sand." (Ganseki is Japanese for rock, koan: insoluble puzzle.)

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Jim Serbent
TATEMONO KOAN - 3
(City Eye)
28" X 42"
Digital Collage Realized As
Archival Pigment Print
$850

Here, an "all-seeing-eye" dominates converging buildings from around the world as city lights twinkle in the vortex. It's an example of an art piece, during its creation, guiding the artist toward a surprising conclusion. (Tatemono is Japanese for building, koan: insoluble puzzle.)

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UNTITLED - 21
(Y-G Burst)
44" X 60"
Archival Pigment Print Scroll
$950

Experimentation with video feedback provided the basis for this dynamic, meditative image which bridges macro and micro worlds. Is it from within the nucleus of an atom or is it the birth of the universe, or both?

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JIM SERBENT

The gallery, www.middlestreetgallery.org and (540) 227-5066, is now located at 311 Gay Street, Lower Level, facing Main Street & across from Ballard’s Washington, VA.