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Barbara O. Yglesias
Artists A-I > A-C
Costa Rican artist, Barbara Odio Yglesias began her career in the Department of Bellas Artes at the University of Costa Rica and developed her artistic vision while painting and working with clay in the rainforests of Costa Rica. Living in the Osa Pennisula, on the Pacific southwest coast of Costa Rica for 16 years, the wild flora and fauna inspired her colorful early paintings. The series of acrylic paintings Visions of the Rainforest, reflect her immersion in the rainforest and the rural life of the Osa. The next period in her artistic development emerged in the volcanic landscape of lake Arenal (2001-2006) where she produced the series of paintings entitled Rebirths. In these oil-based paintings she explored the unconscious of the female psyche by inscribing icons such as the moon, serpent and flower - often associated negatively with being female - to recapture their power and emancipate the “New Woman." In 2011, Barbara embarked on a new artist endeavor adding sand to her technique of clay painting—begun in the Osa in 1998- with the series entitled Earth Art which combines patterns found in nature with elemental shapes and pigments as a counter discourse to the progress-based modernity and urban life found in large cities today.
From the artist:
Inspiration comes to me by the need to capture the natural beauty that surrounds me. These wonderful shapes and forces which form the mysteries of nature...these patterns that repeat themselves again and again in all elements of the universe.
The clays I use to paint with are from the mountains and rivers of Costa Rica, each for their unique colors. The search for clay is an important part of the process, to introduce new colors and maintain a direct connection with nature. The sands come from the countless and beautiful beaches of Costa Rica. The repetitive patterns seen in nature are the source of my inspiration. The veins of a leaf resemble the veins of our body …and the spirals formed in plants and sea s shells repeat themselves throughout the universe.
