Oil Paint Cods

Item Description

Title & Artist:  "Let's Swim" – by Barbara H. Rafferty

Medium & Size:  Alcohol ink on wood, sprayed with clear acrylic.  21 7/8" L x 8 5/8" H x 3/4" D.  For indoor display only.

Artist Statement:  Barbara gives a confident personal voice to the beauty, humor, and joy she sees daily. Her paintings include watercolor and mixed media pieces expressing her belief that suggestion can be more powerful than reality. Bold and colorful abstract paintings show Barbara's interest in exploring light and form, while she uses natural objects and ink sketching to enhance her paintings. She loves capturing people in quick, spontaneous pen strokes.

The variety of locations from which Barbara has painted is equaled by the various techniques she has used to express her love of nature and her surroundings—always with a twist of perspective, a bit of whimsy, a colorful bird, a musician bent to the bow. Her artist "self" shines through her art, often with a crooked smile, and her paintings present moments that are often delightful, touching, and transitory—to be shared between artist and viewer.

Artist Biography:  An irrepressible energy has motivated Barbara to contribute creatively in many ways for much of her life: she has spent decades sketching, making costumes, creating craft objects, working with theater groups, and preparing promotional materials for volunteer organizations, all while nurturing the gifts of nine now-grown children and numerous grandchildren and tending to a full-time job at Salem State College until retirement.

Barbara began painting seriously in watercolors when she embarked on a paintbrush trip to Italy in 2004. Once she started painting and sketching in earnest, she has not stopped except to buy more paint and replace brushes. Since her first trip to Europe, she has painted en plein air in Spain, France, Florida, New Mexico, St. Maarten, Wales, Cape Cod, and locally.

Barbara is a juried member of the Marblehead Arts Association, Salem Arts Association, LynnArts, and Swampscott Arts Association. She is the Crafts Chairperson for the Marblehead Festival of Arts and has also exhibited in the Marblehead Festival of Arts, winning ribbons in Painting the Town and Mixed Media, and was winner of the Festival's 1997 Logo Contest. Barbara has shown her work in Englewood, FL, and in Los Alamos, NM.

Hosting Business:  "Let's Swim" is on display at Madam Had'em, 7 Pleasant St., Marblehead, MA.

Item Special Note

Pick-up of purchased cods will be on Wednesday evening, July 5. Winning bidder will receive a notification email with information on pick-up time and location.

If winning bidder requires shipping, winner's credit card will be charged a separate $24.95 fee to cover USPS ground and handling. Shipping is available within the U.S. only and must be requested within 7 days after receipt of the notification email.

Any cod purchased via "Buy Now" will remain on display at the hosting business through the end of the auction, and will be available for pick-up as detailed in the winning bidder notification email.

If winning bidder has not picked up cod (or provided shipping address) within 30 days after the close of the auction, cod will become the property of Marblehead Festival of Arts, Inc.

Click here to see the other decorated cods up for bid in our Cods of a Different Color online auction!

To learn more about the Marblehead Festival of Arts, visit www.marbleheadfestival.org.
To make a tax-deductible donation, visit www.marbleheadfestival.org/donations.