It’s been almost three years since artist Barbara Harper picked up a paintbrush. That’s how long it’s been since her husband was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and she gave up her art career to be his primary caretaker -- a job that left no energy for creativity.
“I just couldn’t work,” said Harper, who recalls dabbling in pastels as far back as age 3. “I just sat in my studio. I couldn’t do it.”
Harper’s husband Robert died last June, and it was by far the most devastating event she’s experienced in her 62 years.
“I’ve lost children and family members; I was in an earthquake in San Francisco; and I was hit by an automobile and laid up for a year,” said Harper. “But this really knocked the wind out of me.”
The loss of her husband wasn’t the first time Harper’s career took a major detour. Through most of her school days growing up in Yonkers, N.Y., she won accolades and scholarships for her pastel portraits, but family responsibilities kept her from pursing her passion. It wasn’t until she was an adult that she found time to enroll at New York University and earn an art degree at night. Yet she didn’t take up art as a career until she met her husband, Robert, a certified public accountant.
“He saw a sketch I had done, and he immediately went out and bought me hundreds of dollars of supplies that I didn’t even know how to use,” said Harper. “He learned how to use them and then taught me.”
Harper’s career soon took off, and she found herself accepting private commissions as well as doing her own work. With retirement nearing, the couple decided to settle in the Atlanta area, and found an apartment in Cartersville with enough room to accommodate an art studio.
But when her husband took ill, Harper stopped painting to see to his every need. She was at his side as he faced chemotherapy, disintegrating health and one bad report after another. But it wasn’t long after Robert’s death that friends began encouraging her to get back into the work she so loves.
“I would have loved to do a show, but I didn’t have any work to put in one,” said Harper. “But I found that painting helped me through the grief process. I started painting every day; I was obsessed.”
On April 2, Harper will present her first art show in three years. The exhibit, featuring at least 15 portraits of animals, flowers and people, will be at Gallery 4463 in Acworth.
“This is really the first art I’ve done in years,” said Harper. “It’s the first time in a long while that I feel my skills are back to where they were 20 years ago.”
At the Acworth gallery, Harper is also enjoying another first: being part of a cooperative arts group.
“This is the first time I’ve ever been part of a membership gallery, too,” she said. “It’s been very helpful. There are 32 artists here, and there are very genuine, caring people.”
Having the co-op’s support has finally put her career back on track, said Harper.
“Death really does change you,” she said. “But finding this gallery and these people was like coming home.”
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