“The Truth of Mountains” - fine art in handmade paper by Barbara Barkley with custom framing by Michael Colombo.

I have been making paper for over 30 years and use both Western and Eastern traditional styles of papermaking for my artwork. I was originally taught by Japanese papermakers in the ancient process of making paper from plants. I cook various plants in lye for several hours, rinse the cooked fibers, and finally hand beat to open the fibers up for better strength. I also use traditional Western rag fibers, cotton, and flax in my paper. I color these fibers with both quality lightfast German pigments, and natural earthen pigments that are collected from unique soils around the world. Each colored fiber lends its own character to the final artwork as I mix the various colored pulps and create the art wet, layer by layer,building up my design without the use of colored paint or glue. My art brings me joy to create and may it bring peace to the beholder.

My husband, Michael Colombo, creates my handmade frames. These are individually hand cut to size from a special art board ( a wood laminate on either side with a lightweight material in the center). This creates a lightweight frame with a very unique look. Corner photos are taken to show the patterns that are made by hand painting the frame with a palette knife and other tools to get a great overall texture. The process to make these frames took two years of experimentation by Michael and the result is you get two artists when purchasing our creations. Michael signs each individual frame.

Artwork size - 27 inches x 16inches Frame size- 36 inches x 24 inches.

 Price - $1685.00 - If you would like to arrange a no interest time payment to purchase this original work just let us know and we can set one up that would fit your budget.

If you are a past collector, you always get 10% off on the sale price, as a thank you for supporting my art and small business.