Sydney

Wellman

Born during the baby boom, Sydney grew up as an only child with a vivid imagination. She lived in several locations including a home in rural Peoria, Ill where she watched farmer Fred ride his white stallion, and visited the horses’ barn. “I loved everything about that barn”. Her first true art experience was at age five in a summer art class. “I was captivated as the instructor helped me to draw a house”. Throughout many moves and schools, art was her focus. In 1968, the high school basement art room set the stage for nude paintings. At home, she continued to paint large canvases. Her life revolved around art, and cumulated at H.S.graduation with the "Outstanding Student Art Award. Finally, her quest for independence took her and her five-year old daughter to San Francisco. “It was my dream from the sixties, and where I was inspired and realized that I had to remain true to my art.” In 1985 Pittsburgh, PA became home for 26 years where she matriculated to Chatham and La Roche Universities for degrees in Graphic Design and Professional Writing. Through many moves, Sydney now calls Durham home for the last three years where she lives with her husband, and Roxi, her Manchester Terrier. “From my first drawing as a five year old to my current art and everything in-between shaped me into the artist I am now—an old hippie with paint-coated hands and purple hair listening to classic rock while painting nudes. And remember the barn in Peoria? That was the inspiration for my studio name - Purple Barn Studios”.

My work gravitates toward figurative themes. As a child, my nomadic lifestyle, my search for relatives, and need for human connections is the "why" behind my work. This in a nutshell I call "happy connections". My techniques and experimental renderings represent the layers of my experiences and emotions. The surface is as important to me as the final image of the painting. Using bold color and collage, I proceed with both an intuitive and conscious approach using personal symbolism along with successive layers of paint and more of my original collage pieces. My processes, figures, and final paintings parallel people. They have multi-layered interest and possibly a hint about the backgrounds and what lies beneath.

Acrylic, Collage/Assemblage, Drawing, Graphic Design, Mixed Media, Sculpture

https://www.purplebarnstudios.com/

https://www.facebook.com/PurpleBarnStudios/