Barb Williams

After raising five children Barb decided in 1977 to satisfy a life-long ambition to express herself in painting and drawing. Upon moving to Alexandria, Va. in 1979, she worked for the director of the Art League School located in the old Torpedo Factory. When their home near Columbia Furnace was completed in 1981, she and her husband moved to the Valley.

While at the Torpedo Factory, she was accepted into shows and won an Equal Award and a First Place for her pastels. She also was able to take classes and workshops with talented artists there. The highlight of her instruction, and continues to be, to work under Diane Tesler, nationally known artist, mentor and friend, in residence at the Torpedo Factory.

Since coming to the Valley, Barb continues to enter shows and has been fortunate to place in these as well. Oil and Pastel are her two favorite mediums. She also does small works in gouache. "There is so much beauty all around us, in things we see everyday." She tries to interpret this with a heightened sense of color, shadows and reflections. Barb's hope is to paint in such a way that the viewer will see more each time they look at her paintings.