Canadian Artist Barbara Boldt
"My art is who I am, how I feel, it’s the sum total of all my experiences, my emotions,
my attitudes, my memories and my inner soul urges."
Fort Langley artist Barbara Boldt.
my attitudes, my memories and my inner soul urges."
Fort Langley artist Barbara Boldt.
Barbara Boldt was born in Germany in 1930. At the age of nine her idyllic family life in a rural setting came to an end. The family was on a seaside holiday when Germany invaded Poland in September 1939. Chaos ensued. Her father enlisted, while her mother stayed with the children. After experiencing the terror of airstrikes, Boldt was sent to a children’s evacuation camp. These regimented camps were located in remote areas. She spent her early adolescence away from siblings and parents.
Boldt was 15 when the war ended in 1945. Without an infrastructure, she made her way home, viewing first hand the devastation caused by war. The reunited family struggled to feed themselves on rations in a cashless society. They endured many hardships before emigrating to Canada in 1952. Boldt worked as a domestic in Quebec, then moved to Vancouver in 1953. She married the same year and the couple had three children.
At age 50, in the process of leaving her marriage and launching an art career, Boldt received encouragement from an unlikely source. Iconic BC painter Emily Carr appeared to her in a dream. “Keep painting,” Carr said, “keep doing your small and magnificent things.” One of Boldt’s Small and Magnificent Things, is a detailed watercolour of lichen on a tree branch. The curves and frayed edges of the lichen are clearly visible. Subtle gradations of colour skillfully delineate the shapes and crevices.
“Even in the smallest forms, nature has a pattern, a system, an order, and that appeals to my personality,” she says.
“Even in the smallest forms, nature has a pattern, a system, an order, and that appeals to my personality,” she says.
One of Boldt’s early paintings from 1978 is called Florencia Bay. Located near Tofino in Pacific Rim National Park, the bay’s wild waters are frequented by surfers. This artwork displays a similar flowing style and rhythmic vitality found in many of Carr’s paintings. The upward curve of the rugged shoreline and stormy sea offer an emotional lift. The cropped scene activates our senses: we can almost feel the salty spray and wet sand beneath our feet. “I paint a landscape because I love the place,” she says, “the light, the mood, the moment. It’s that simple.” The artist works from photos she takes on location, completing her many layered paintings in studio.
In 1984, Boldt met an artist who became her friend and lover. She describes their relationship as a catalyst for her creativity. “He made me look into myself,” she says, “made me aware of the strength in me, the depth in me!” Together, they discovered a cave, only accessible at low tide, on a beach near Tofino. Boldt sketched and painted the cave many times, christening the site Stone Womb. She describes her feelings in a poem called The Womb. “The womb, where thought is born and spirit lives. The Womb. The darkened hollow takes and gives. It took our love and made it grow. The womb gave wisdom - strength to go.”
Boldt is fascinated by geological cycles and earth’s evolution. Crevices, rocky seaside ledges, coves with sculpted sandstone, concretions all fire her imagination. She documents these formations in an ongoing series called Earth Patterns. For the artist, these special places are mysterious passageways with magnetic resonance. Painted, they become gateways between the worlds of matter and spirit, alive with the mother earth energy she refers to as Gaia.
In 1988, Boldt journaled about her process with Earth Patterns. “I feel them with my brush,” she says, “I caress the canvas, feel the form in the landscape. My brush is doing what I cannot: feeling, touching, caressing and shaping with sweeping motions. The need to touch is strong and constant.” She returned often to Galiano Island to view the dramatic sculpted sandstone on its beaches. Evolving and Vati’s Cape were painted in that area in 1996. Her West Coast vistas include the many moods of our Pacific coastline, a melding of sand, sea and sky.
In September, 1990, tragedy struck the Boldt family. Her youngest son Ken, age 32, was killed in a bike accident near Fort Langley. The event occurred close to Salmon River, a place they both loved. Boldt returned many times to paint the river flats and watery reflections. “The act of painting saved my life,” she says. “Art is more than painting: it’s a way of life. It is finding meaning and searching for the essence of existence.” In 2000, Boldt’s daughter Dorothy died of brain cancer. It was another staggering loss. Mother and daughter had shared a warm relationship and creative lifestyle.
“I painted hard while Dorothy was dying,” she says. “We both painted, actually.”
“I painted hard while Dorothy was dying,” she says. “We both painted, actually.”
Self Portrait of Hannelore, painted in 1998, commemorates a 1938 photograph taken of Barbara in the “Wild Garden” at her home. She is eight years old, her childhood about to be shattered by World War Two. Looking back presents a tangle of memories and emotions for the artist. In 1938, she recalls her father weeping at the kitchen table over news of Kristallnacht - the Night of Broken Glass - when mobs destroyed Jewish synagogues and businesses. She also recalls him taking a photo of Hitler when he visited the region. Like many Germans, her father was swept along by Hitler’s nationalistic vision and promise of economic renewal.
In 2020, at 90 years of age, I wonder what Boldt would say to her nine year old self?
Perhaps something like this: A long journey lies ahead, take heart. No matter what happens, the natural world will always be there to offer you solace and renewal. Nurture your special gifts. Keep on drawing and painting!
Perhaps something like this: A long journey lies ahead, take heart. No matter what happens, the natural world will always be there to offer you solace and renewal. Nurture your special gifts. Keep on drawing and painting!
Barbara continues to paint in her home/studio in Fort Langley. She can be reached via email: [email protected]
Or visit her Original Art Gallery and Studio website. www.barbaraboldt.com
Or visit her Original Art Gallery and Studio website. www.barbaraboldt.com
SOURCES CITED:
Places of her heart: the life and art of Barbara Boldt.
By K Jane Watt In conversation with Barbara Boldt. 2012.
Empowered at any Age: Langley artist inspired by nature.
By Heather Colpitts in Langley Advance Times, April 2018.
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