American Art Collector Magazine Feature

Happy to have my included in a special section about botanical art.

Profile published in Hudson Valley Magazine

Multimedia artist Julia Whitney Barnes creates masterpieces using cyanotype techniques and unique materials like plants and bricks.

Art seemed inevitable for Julia Whitney Barnes. The colors of the Hudson Valley have inspired her since she was a child.

“I can’t imagine my life where I am anything but an artist,” Whitney Barnes says.

Julia Whitney Barnes

Whitney Barnes started her career as early as high school, when she practiced screen printing, making fabrics, and designing clothing. Being a part of a family where her father is a poet and her mother a lifelong musician, creativity has always been encouraged. By the time she moved to New York City to attend Parsons School of Design, she soon found a new love for art. She avoids constraints in her work, experimenting with a variety of new techniques and mediums, including watercolors and oil paintings, which she still uses today.

It seems simple to start one project, finish it, and move on to the next, but that’s not how most artists operate. In a given week, Whitney Barnes works on oil paintings, stained glass, and installations. She enriches all of her projects with a piece of the Hudson Valley. 

“I always had an interest in plants,” Whitney Barnes says. “When I moved to the Hudson Valley, I wanted something that felt more intimate. So, I started focusing on the plants around me.”

Although cyanotype has become one of Whitney Barnes’ most dominant techniques, she only started delving into the art form two years ago. Cyanotype is a photographic printing process that produces a cyan-blue print. Astronomer John Herschel originated the technique in 1842. It was used widely throughout history to make blueprints and art. 

When creating cyanotypes, Whitney Barnes typically uses local flora from the Hudson Valley. Walking into her backyard, she will select ferns, poppies, petunias, daffodils, and a variety of other plant species. Next, she will press them for inspiration and use in her projects. She also receives plants from her neighbors and has been collaborating with two historic gardens, Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie and the Shaker Heritage Site in Albany. 

In her collection, Whitney Barnes estimates that she currently has thousands of plants. She keeps the plants in her studio to press and examine. After looking at the different plant species, she picks different ones out to use in her current body of work.

“I carefully arrange elaborate cyanotype compositions at night and utilize long exposures under natural or UV light to create the prints,” Whitney Barnes explains.“Once the unique cyan imagery is fused, I meticulously paint the exposed watercolor paper with multiple layers of watercolor, ink, and gouache.”

Gouache is a method of painting that is similar to watercolors. However, the main difference is that gouache is more opaque. White paper and drawings underneath typically show through when a layer of watercolor is applied. When using a layer of gouache, the paper will hardly show through.

Pieces by Julia Whitney Barnes on display at Carrie Haddad Gallery in Hudson

Working on many cyanotypes at once, Whitney Barnes rotates them depending on her inspiration at the time. Many of her cyanotypes are blue and white, which is traditional for the technique. She also creates some with gold and toned tints, and others with full color. 

Starting last year, Whitney Barnes began creating prints of her cyanotypes after many people showed interest in purchasing her work. The prints are labor-intensive, but she enjoys the intimate aspect of sending her work to others. With every print sold, she writes the person a handwritten letter to make her art more personal. 

She completes most of her work in the studio at night, after she puts her children to sleep.

“I love to come and see what I have done before I go to sleep,” Whitney Barnes says. “I will come up at midnight and paint for another 30 minutes.” 

Converting her attic into an art studio, Julia Whitney Barnes embraces what she has. Since her husband is also an artist, he works in the basement studio downstairs. The couple reserves the two main floors of their Hudson Valley home for living. It helps offer a good work-life balance. 

Although her home studio doesn’t have high ceilings like she was used to in Brooklyn, it features two skylights. The natural light allows Whitney Barnes to be present in her work and comfortable in the space. Although her home studio isn’t large, it is her own. Renovating the studio to uniquely cater to what she wants has been part of what makes the space so special. 

Moving from Brooklyn to the Hudson Valley allowed Whitney Barnes to immerse herself in projects that had previously been put on the back-burner. For about a decade now, she has been working on a project called the Hudson River of Bricks. 

“When living in Brooklyn, I noticed that brick edifices were demolished and carted off to points unknown,” Whitney Barnes says. “I began collecting bricks from destroyed buildings as reference images. Once I observed the variety in ‘stamps,’ I discovered that the bricks were made from Hudson River clay.”

The installations created by Whitney Barnes bring attention to the history of bricks made in the Hudson Valley River area. For her installations, she is creating scale versions of the Hudson River by using bricks from more than 250 brickyards. Each brick has a unique stamp marking.   

Installation at the Trolley Barn in Poughkeepsie

For one of her installations, she glazed one brick from each brickyard in a range of green and blues hues to represent the Hudson River’s colors as it reflects the sky. Whitney Barnes cleaned each brick and then painted the brickyard name and location on the side in the underglaze. Next, she put the bricks in a modern kiln. After that, she glazes the bricks and fires them one more time before they sit for a week to avoid cracking. 

“In the largest version of the installation, each glazed brick is put in the geographic location along the sculpted river where its brickyard existed,” Whitney Barnes explains. 

 Another version of the installation includes glazed bricks in alphabetical order to show variations brick makers used over time. With every brickyard, there are slight differences in the fonts, depth of bricks, and clay body colors. 

The ultimate goal for Whitney Barnes is to permanently install the Hudson River of Bricks project somewhere in New York State. Before she does that, she wants to have an example of at least one brick from every brickyard that existed along the Hudson River. The 150-year-old bricks pose some challenges. For instance, Barnes only uses stamped bricks in the project. 

“The progress for my installation has slowed down because the more bricks I have, the harder it is to collect the ones I don’t have,” Whitney Barnes says. “I think I’m up to almost 300 brickyards and I have thousands of stamped bricks.” 

While still working on the Hudson River of Bricks installation, she is also busy with other projects in the area. NYSCA recently awarded Julia Whitney Barnes with an artist’s fellowship grant for her project “Planting Utopia.” Check out the project by visiting the Shaker Heritage Site in Albany and at the Albany International Airport in June. 

For “Planting Utopia,” Whitney Barnes has collected specimens from over 150 plants growing in the herb garden at Shaker Heritage Society. The site is the first Shaker settlement in America. The herb garden serves as inspiration for a series of her artworks that will be presented inside and mounted on the exterior of the 1856 Brick Drying House at the Shaker Heritage Site. 

Whitney Barnes is also creating an herbarium from the garden. She mounts each plant and compiles them into a book along with historic imagery once the project is complete. Whitney Barnes’ work will be on display at the Shaker Heritage Site for about one year and at the Albany International Airport for three years. 

Starting on April 6, a large collection of her work will be available for in-person viewing at the Carrie Haddad Gallery in Hudson. There will be an opening reception on April 9 from 5 to 7 p.m., and her works, such as cyanotypes, paintings, and prints, will be on display in the gallery through the entirety of April and May.

“I want the content of my work to be a powerful experience, not only because of the historical moment in which they were made, but in that the process speaks to a kind of gutting and reconstituting,” Whitney Barnes explains. “The final work isn’t the object, but instead, a record of my will to bring it back.”

Awarded $10K New York State Council on the Arts Support for Artists Grant

I am thrilled to share that I was awarded a $10,000 grant for my project “Planting Utopia” that will be at the Shaker Heritage Society starting in summer 2022. There will also be a partnering installation at the Albany International Airport on view from 2022 through 2025.

Julia Whitney Barnes is the recipient of a 2022 NYSCA Support for Artists Grant

"Select6" at Simon|Garvey NY

December 1, 2021 — February 28, 2022
Artsy.net|UWS

Explore the show

Garvey|Simon is pleased to announce Select6, the sixth annual exhibition of artists chosen by director Elizabeth K. Garvey through the gallery’s innovative Review Program.

This year’s ten artists are:
Julia Whitney Barnes, Jimmy Fike, Anne Finkelstein, Jenifer Kent, Lori Larusso, Gwyneth Leech, Claire McConaughy, Debra Ramsay, Linda Schmidt, and Charles Yoder.

JULIA WHITNEY BARNES

Julia Whitney Barnes uses the power of natural light to craft her floral cyanotypes. She is indiscriminate in selecting specimen, gathering everything from weeds to cultivated flowers. After posing and drying her subjects, Barnes builds her compositions on the surface of her photo-sensitive paper. Barnes also integrates watercolor and digitally-rendered negatives into her ethereal scenes. The final product is a mélange of techniques, shapes, and colors that is at once familiar and extraordinary. Julia Whitney Barnes has exhibited widely in the United States and internationally. She was awarded fellowships from New York State Council on the Arts administered through Arts Mid-Hudson, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Abbey Memorial Fund for Mural Painting/National Academy of Fine Arts, and the Gowanus Public Art Initiative, among others.

Garvey|Simon established the Review Program in 2016 to open a dialogue between artists and galleries, a practice that has long been anathema to gallery orthodoxy. Neither the past practice of artists drowning galleries in heaps of slides nor today’s avalanche of emails is beneficial to either gallery or artist. Garvey believes that artists “need to have a working platform to engage with dealers who otherwise might not see their work.” In the multi-tiered program, artists must pay an administrative fee for their work to be reviewed. “We want artists to think before they submit and be sure their work is appropriate for our program – the small fee puts some skin in the game and detracts from artists sending generic, mass submissions.” Finalists are given a private meeting with the gallery to consider their work for the exhibition. Garvey|Simon has cultivated successful partnerships with artists Margot Glass, Eileen Murphy, Karl Hartman, Kit Warren, Robert Stuart, Sung Won Yun, and Joshua Flint through the Select program. 

For further information, to see more images, or to schedule an in-person or Zoom viewing, please visit Garvey Simon or contact Elizabeth Garvey at liz@garveysimon.com or 917-796-2146.

"Propagation" at Kenise Barnes Fine Art

I am pleased to announce that my work will be featured in this show. with KBFA in Kent, CT.

A celebration of spring (at last!) with artwork based on botany and pollinators including artists Julia Whitney Barnes, Nancy Blum, Peter Hamlin, Catherine Latson, Julie Maren, Joseph Scheer.

The show is on view from May 8 - June 20.

7 FULLING LANE, KENT, CT 06757

860 592 0220KENISE@KBFA.COM

hours: Thursday - Saturday 11:00 - 5:30, Sunday 12 - 4:00 and by appointment

BECAUSE ART IS ESSENTIAL

With a focus on unique and exceptional contemporary art Kenise Barnes Fine Art represents more than 50 emerging and mid-career artists working in all media. We have a wide selection of paintings, drawings, photography and sculpture as well as consulting services and collecting advice for the burgeoning to the seasoned collector. In addition to our curated exhibitions that change every six weeks we maintain a large inventory of work from our artists’ studios in our on-site warehouses. As a professional art consulting firm, we also source work from our wide network of artist’s studios, galleries, and auction houses. We work extensively with architects, interior designers, art advisors and home owners to find the perfect fit whether it is an entire collection or one special piece.

Kenise Barnes Fine Art opened in 1994 in Larchmont, NY and in May 2019 added a second location in the stunning Kent Barns complex in Kent, CT. In Spring 2021 the gallery expanded its presence in Kent by annexing a second buidling and now is doing business in our two barns in the beautiful Litchfield Hills and on our internet platforms (KBFA.com. ARTSY.com and 1st Dibs.com).

Interview with "I Like Your Work"

I’m so pleased to share this interview with “I Like Your Work” that was published on Friday, April 23, 2021.

Artist Julia Whitney Barnes

Julia Whitney Barnes in an artist living in the Hudson Valley who works in a variety of media from cyanotypes, watercolor, oil paintings, ceramic sculptures, murals, drawings, etchings, and site-specific installations. She has exhibited widely in the United States. She was awarded fellowships from New York State Council on the Arts administered through Arts Mid-Hudson, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Abbey Memorial Fund for Mural Painting/National Academy of Fine Arts, and the Gowanus Public Art Initiative, among others.

Born in Newbury, VT, Julia Whitney Barnes spent two decades in Brooklyn, before moving to Poughkeepsie, NY. She received her BFA from Parsons School of Design and her MFA from Hunter College. Whitney Barnes has created site-specific installations at Arts Brookfield/New York, NY and Brooklyn, NY, the Wilderstein

Sculpture Biennial, Rhinebeck, NY; The Trolley Barn/Fall Kill Creative Works, Poughkeepsie, NY; GlenLily Grounds, Newburgh, NY; ArtsWestchester, White Plains, NY; Gowanus Public Arts Initiative, Brooklyn, NY; Space All Over/Fjellerup Bund i Bund & Grund, Fjellerup, Denmark; Lower Manhattan Cultural Council/Sirovitch Senior Center, New York, NY; Brooklyn School of Inquiry, Brooklyn, NY; New York City Department of Transportation, New York, NY; and Figment Sculpture Garden, Governors Island, NY and among other locations.

1: Tell us a little bit about yourself and your background in the arts.

I was born on an L.L. Bean camping pad on the kitchen floor of a Victorian house in Newbury, Vermont. This largely sums up my childhood. I often work on the floor of my studio and have done many site-specific floor paintings; I’ve wondered if perhaps I have a natural affinity for the floor due to my auspicious arrival.

At the time, my parents had a small business buying and selling antique cars and stringed instruments. My mother’s background is in theology and spirituality and my father is a poet. My parents were part of the 1970s back-to-the-land movement and we moved around a lot for various reasons. I lived all over New England as a child and for high school attended a fine arts program at the Norwich Free Academy in Norwich, CT. It has a unique educational model, and has a museum on the campus, plus an area of rotating exhibitions.

I moved to NYC to attend Parsons School of Design for my BFA and then went on to earn an MFA from Hunter College. After 18 years in the city (mostly in Brooklyn), my photographer husband, Sean Hemmerle, and I moved to Poughkeepsie in 2015. We have a daughter who is five, a son who is almost three and a house that is over a hundred years old.

Pre-motherhood, I spent a few years focused on traveling to various parts of the world and those travels were formative for my future art making. Some of the work that resonated most strongly with me were mosaics made in the last 2,500 years. Being in very different landscapes, like that of Iceland and Greece, also made a lasting impression and I’m grateful I was able to experience so much before travel became more complex. I have always enjoyed splitting my time between making studio work and public art. My murals and installations have been installed in various indoor and outdoor locations in the United States and Europe. One of the projects I have dreamed of doing since I was in undergrad twenty years ago is to design an immersive NYC subway station mosaic. Each year I feel that I am a bit closer to making that possible.

2: What kind of work are you currently making?

Since we moved to the Hudson Valley from Brooklyn six years ago, my work has been much more focused on the natural world. For the past year I’ve been focused on making works on paper that combine watercolor, gouache, ink and cyanotype. The process feels like a satisfying marriage of painting, printmaking, collage, digital media and camera-less photography. As I’ve worked in a myriad of mediums over the past two decades, this current body of work is a culmination of a lot of ideas. Part of my process is growing and pressing plants that I manipulate in the photogram process, and also photograph for source imagery.

I combine several species into single compositions, often to the point where the species of plants depicted are open to interpretation. I create unique blue and white cyanotype prints on thick sheets of cotton paper and then paint in many layers of watercolor, gouache and ink.

I am most interested in creating objects that feel both beautiful and mysterious. I want each painting to be familiar yet slightly outside of time. These works symbolize resilience to me. I want the content of the work to be a powerful experience, not only because of the historical moment in which they were made, but in that the process speaks to a kind of gutting and reconstituting. There's an object, then a ghost of the object, and then the reassertion of the object. The final work isn't the object, but instead, a record of my will to bring it back. And that is more satisfying, more hopeful, than had the original object appeared back on the paper.

3: What is a day like in the studio for you?

I work in my studio every day. Even if it’s only for 15 minutes, that consistency feels important to stay in the flow. My studio is in the attic of our hundred year old house. After five years of various projects up here, we finished the space last winter and I have been super productive since then. A third of my studio has been taken over by my children but that allows me to spend more time in my studio so it was worth the loss of space. It’s fun to see what they create (though they make HUGE messes).

I carefully arrange elaborate cyanotype compositions at night and utilize long exposures under natural or UV light to create the prints. I also create digital renderings in Photoshop and Illustrator and turn them into negatives to use in this work. Once the unique cyan imagery is fused, I meticulously paint the exposed watercolor paper with multiple layers of watercolor, ink and gouache.

I work on many pieces at once and rotate them out of sight in my large flat files when I’m feeling frustrated or need a change of pace. Some of my cyanotype paintings are all blue and white and some are painted in full color, so I like to go back and forth working with these different palettes. I do my most concentrated work at night once my children are in bed. I’m naturally a night owl, but I am looking forward to having more daylight hours of studio time once outside childcare and in-person school are happening again. I include my children in some studio activities like collecting, photographing, shaping and pressing plants, and also making color studies while they paint or draw. Experiencing the world with them is equally inspiring and distracting.

4: What are you looking at right now and/or reading?

I’m collaborating with the Shaker Historic Site and Albany International Airport and am reading “The Shaker’s Private Art,” a book about gift drawings plus skimming through a few other books on Shaker culture. The Shakers sold the land to the county to facilitate the project and when it opened in 1928 it was America’s first municipal airport. I am excited to cross-pollinate the audience that experiences both places. I will be collecting specimens from the historic Shaker garden, which was long used to grow medicinal herbs and I have been studying the uses for each plant. The signage on each plant includes its common name, Latin name and the purpose for which it was grown.

I also read many books on flowers and art. A few recent favorites that are nearby include, “Say it with Flowers, Viennese Flower Painting from Waldmüller to Klimt,” “Flower: Exploring the World in Bloom,” and “Frances Palmer, Life in the Studio.” Palmer’s book has photos of her fantastic ceramics and garden and also has recipes in the back. Flipping through it always makes me hungry, and I want to grow gorgeous plants to arrange in porcelain vases.

5: Where can we find more of your work?

https://www.juliawhitneybarnes.com https://www.instagram.com/juliawhitneybarnes/

https://www.tiktok.com/@juliawhitneybarnes

I’m bad at saying no and somehow have five shows opening in May…

I’m excited about are my upcoming show, “Propagation” with Kenise Barnes Fine Art, on view from May 8 – June 20 in Kent, CT. The show is at the gallery’s new space along with five other artists whose work I love. I also have a triptych of cyanotype landscape paintings in the exhibition “Sunrise Sunset” at the Albany International Airport from May 15 – August 30 in Albany, NY. The gallery is open to the public and does not require going through airport security. One of my cyanotype paintings will be included in “Together apART: Creating During COVID” at ArtsWestchester from May 7 – August 1 in White Plains, NY. You can also see my work in “Continuum” in the Perspective Gallery, Whitney Center (A program of Ely Center of Contemporary Art) from May 15 – September 1 in Hamden, CT. Four of my small works are included in “Flourish” from May 1 – 31 at Lark & Key Gallery in Charlotte, NC.

My work is also represented by Carrie Haddad Gallery in Hudson, NY, where I just had a show of a dozen works this spring.

30th Anniversary exhibition at Carrie Haddad Gallery

I am thrilled to have a dozen works at Carrie Haddad Gallery in Hudson, NY to help celebrate the 30th Anniversary of this prestigious gallery. Click here to see my work available through the gallery.

Julia Whitney Barnes, Samantha French, Ruth Geneslaw, Hue Thi Hoffmaster, Nancy Egol Nikkal, Annika Tucksmith, K. Velis Turan, & Judith Wyer

February 17, 2021 through April 11, 2021

Carrie Haddad opened the first art gallery on Warren St. in Hudson, NY in 1991 with a mission to showcase local artists of the region. Thirty years later, that mission remains at the core of the gallery’s operations as we continue to host seven group exhibits a year with a dedicated roster of artists, some of which have shown with Haddad since the beginning. In celebration of the gallery’s 30th anniversary, we are pleased to present an Invitational Exhibit, on view February 17 – April 11, which will highlight our selections from an open call put out at the end of last year. Out of over 200 submissions, 7 artists were chosen: Julia Whitney Barnes, Samantha French, Ruth Geneslaw, Hue Thi Hoffmaster, Nancy Egol Nikkal, Annika Tucksmith, K. Velis Turan and Judith Wyer. Working in a range of media and genres, their work aligns with the variety of creative talent shown at the gallery for three decades. When we consider how dramatically these white walls are transformed every seven weeks, this exhibit will be no exception. Openings are suspended due to Covid-19, but the gallery remains open to the public daily from 11-5 (except Tuesdays are by appointment only).

Carrie Haddad Gallery
622 Warren Street
Hudson, NY 12534
518-828-1915
info@carriehaddadgallery.com

Open Daily: 11 am to 5 pm
Except Tuesdays by appointment only

About the gallery:

Established in 1991 as the first fine art gallery in Hudson, NY, Carrie Haddad Gallery represents professionally committed artists as well as emerging talent specializing in all types of painting, both large and small sculpture, works on paper and a variety of techniques in photography. The majority of our inventory consists of both figurative and non-representational contemporary artwork. Carrie Haddad also represents several estates of deceased artists influenced by the Post War Art Movement in America c.1935 - 1970s.

Occupying 3000 square feet of exhibition space on Warren Street, the gallery is conveniently located just two hours north of Manhattan. The annual exhibition schedule accommodates 7 exhibits on the main floor as well as a rotating selection of photography displayed on the second floor. Carrie Haddad Gallery offers art consultation services, collaborating with design professionals and architects across the country to procure compelling works for private residences and corporate collections. Our diverse inventory offers solutions to fit a variety of criteria and our team ensures direct and dedicated project management.

Video Interview with ArtsBrookfield

Happy to share this interview about Nocturnal Nature, which is on view through March 12th at Brookfield Place in Lower Manhattan.

"Nocturnal Nature" at Brookfield Place

JULIA WHITNEY BARNES: NOCTURNAL NATURE

exhibition

January 11, 2021 - March 12, 2021
8:00 AM - 10:00 PM

Brookfield Place New York (BFPL)
230 Vesey Street
New York, NY 10821

Curated by Common Ground Arts

Nocturnal Nature is a new body of work by artist Julia Whitney Barnes that pairs the architectural splendor of the Cesar Pelli-designed windows and atrium of Brookfield Place’s Winter Garden, with inspiration from the space’s interior grove of palm trees, which was designed by Diana Balmori, the late wife of Cesar Pelli.  Whitney Barnes’ work—exhibited just off the Winter Garden on the first floor—is composed of a series of framed works on paper that combine watercolor and gouache paintings on cyanotype printed watercolor paper. The imagery depicts botanical arrangements with geometric patterns and the property’s grand atrium windows, revealing various skies alluding to different seasons and times of day. The Washington robusta palm trees planted in the Winter Garden appear to grow right out of the floor, and similarly, Whitney Barnes’ botanicals burst from the implied floor patterns in her artwork. Particularly during these cold winter months, Whitney Barnes’ incorporation of natural elements within her work—sun, flowers, plants, water, and air— brings the promise of spring to this interior hallway, as well as a sense of growth and transformation.

Cyanotype is a camera-less photographic printing process invented in 1842 by scientist and astronomer, Sir John Hirschel, which produces a cyan-blue print when a chemistry-coated surface is exposed to sunlight. Through her use of this medium, Whitney Barnes manipulates physical impressions of plants grown locally in her Hudson Valley home garden and other nearby areas, along with intricately cutout photographic negatives. Each selected flower is preserved through a pressing process in which the artist dissects and shapes each form—akin to a specimen from a natural history museum—and then lays everything out in massive flat files in her attic studio. Given that sunlight starts the exposure process with cyanotype chemistry, the artist carefully arranges elaborate compositions at night and utilizes long exposures under natural or UV light to create the final prints. The digital renderings of the Winter Garden atrium windows and floor that Whitney Barnes designed, were based on an image taken by her husband and professional photographer, Sean Hemmerle. After creating a multi-part negative based on the glazing and metal supports of the atrium’s architecture, Whitney Barnes meticulously painted the exposed watercolor paper with multiple layers of watercolor and gouache. Each cyanotype is created by the power of light, inspiring viewers to look at these very recognizable images in new and different ways.

https://www.artsbrookfield.com/event/julia-whitney-barnes-nocturnal-nature/

https://bfplny.com/event/julia-whitney-barnes-nocturnal-nature/