From linocut prints to large-sized oil paintings, Julie Barbeau’s art continues to evolve. Her work in the Group of Eight explores the theme of urban isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic.
By Kara Dicker
Those familiar with Julie Barbeau’s printmaking depicting nature will see another aspect of her talent at the Group of Eight show on display through June 29. Broken Glass and View from The 21st are large-sized oils portraying the New York Cityscape during the COVID-19 pandemic. While depictions of the Empire State Building and the newly completed Jenga Tower establish the works’ recognizable setting, their mood of urban isolation draws the viewer in.
“Those are a series I wanted to do,” Barbeau says.
A St. Louis area native, Barbeau lived in some of the country’s largest cities as an adult, including Los Angeles and Dallas. The decision to attend graduate school at the New York Academy of Art after her children had grown didn’t seem daunting. That was in 2019. By the spring of 2020, the pandemic had struck, and the isolation it inflicted was a profound experience for her, both physically and psychologically. Classes moved online, and no one talked to one another. Her husband was staying at their family farm in Southern Missouri. “I had the inclination to do dark paintings.”
With the school in lockdown, Barbeau began creating inside her high-rise apartment building in Tribeca. For her synthesis course, she conducted experiments by arranging wood-block dioramas and sculpting clay figurines in the well-known poses of models from French Impressionist Edouard Manet’s artwork.
“Broken Glass is one hundred percent from a diorama,” she says. As for View from The 21st, Barbeau set up a still life on her windowsill (21st floor) and created a paper mache mountain as a base on which she painted the Empire State Building tilting precariously. Outside her window was the architecturally famous Jenga Tower high-rise, controversial for its perceived unstable design. She brought the scene into her painting. “I always wanted to paint that view.”
Barbeau moved back to St. Louis in 2022, where she and her husband have been renovating the downstairs of their home to accommodate her art studio. She joined Heartland Art Club, where her work has been sold. In 2024, Barbeau became a Signature Member.
Julie Barbeau beside her cityscape, “View from the 21st.”
She credits founding members Shawn Cornell and Lisa Ober’s encouragement to apply. Before grad school, most of Barbeau’s art was in oils, centered on rural and animal subjects. During the application process, she revisited and strengthened some of her earlier pieces. “I recarved some of the linos,” she says. “I can carve so much better now. It took a huge amount of time and forced me to do a lot of work.”
The hard work paid off. The Gateway Arch Park Foundation learned of her talent through Heartland’s website and commissioned her to create 100 linocut prints for a fundraiser. “They said because I was a Signature artist, I must be a respected artist,” she says.
Meanwhile, Barbeau has been hard at work as a steering committee member, where she schedules volunteers to host the gallery. Recently, she overhauled the gallery handbook into a more detailed manual. “It’s been a pleasure working with Mary Drastal,” she says. “She knows how things should be. Lyle Seddon and I just helped write it out.”