SUMMER SCHOOL AT THE NOVA SCOTIA COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN 1998
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About Barbara bickle
Barbara's childhood was steeped in Toronto's rich cultural scene of the 1960s. Art galleries, concerts, museums, and the theatre kindled an imaginative temperament and sparked a long, rewarding career in the arts. In 1980, she moved to Halifax to attend the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD). She has been active as a practising and exhibiting artist ever since.
Living in Halifax, its history, surrounding structures and landscape, and her family connections to it have been the principal sources of inspiration. In 2003, she began a twelve-year project funded by the Nova Scotia Department of Tourism and Culture. The mixed-media visual diary commemorated her grandfather's war experiences and showcased almost fifty years of art making: landscape and still life paintings, figure studies, and collages. The diverse body of work culminated in 175 artworks titled 'Birthmarks Landmarks' and was exhibited at the Chase Gallery at the Nova Scotia Archives in 2015.
Barbara's focus shifted towards portraiture and figure painting in 2016. She captures the narrative qualities of gestures and environments in natural or imagined settings, often incorporating newspaper images or text to reflect her observations and sentiments. She approaches individual portraits with an intuitive, impressionistic, or playful style, adding realistic details unique to the sitter. The pleasure lies in balancing strokes, texture, and colour in expressive compositions to craft distinctive portraits. Hearing the responses upon completion, ranging from 'That is not me, but it is a nice interpretation' to 'Oh, it's my mother!' to 'You forgot my pearls!' adds to the pleasure.
Portrait Exhibition: bicklecreative.com/blog
Barbara remains engaged in figure painting and an ongoing work of art titled 'Halifax and Beyond', appropriating newspaper images of Halifax landmarks and political, social, and cultural events.
Publications
Barbara Bickle – article by Loredana Ruscetti
Painting Exhibition: Altered Perspectives
Here and Now Gallery, Toronto 1992
The Companion – essay by Michael Lee, a response to Barbara’s installation Grey Matters: Conversations with Dementia 2014
A Storied History of Art Education: The Art Department at Central Technical School, 1892-2014 by Dustin Ian Garnet, PhD – Barbara was one of twenty former students who provided an oral 'take' on the institution and how it impacted their personal and professional life 2014
Art Review (pdf) of Birthmarks Landmarks Exhibition by arts journalist Elissa Barnard, The Chronicle Herald 2015
Writings
The Book of Jobs — how an artist survived in Canada. A recollection of Barbara's employment as an artist through pictures and text 2013
Commemoration – showcases artwork related to family history and commemorates Barbara's grandfather, Wilfred Nathaniel Bickle 2015
Dwellings: Afterward (pdf): eBook. Watercolours by Carol Hoorn Fraser 2016
Art Essay (pdf) for artist Anton Cetín's book COVID-19, who framed his artistic response with an intriguing series 2020
Drawing a Line 70 Years Long – a book of photographs and text trace the indelible markings of family, friends, and critical circumstances that shaped Barbara's life story 2022