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Barbara Torke Art Collections

Shop for artwork from Barbara Torke based on themed collections. Each image may be purchased as a canvas print, framed print, metal print, and more! Every purchase comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Artwork by Barbara Torke

Each image may be purchased as a canvas print, framed print, metal print, and more! Every purchase comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

About Barbara Torke

Barbara Torke Barbara S Torke
Cedaredge, Colorado
Biographical statement

My career realignment, after 25 years of teaching art in the public schools, was to become a full time artist. Having painted since I was little enough to grasp a crayon, it is not surprising. Since moving to the Western Slope in 1995 I have painted with watercolor, pastel and oil—and some acrylic—many places that my dog and my Isuzu traveled. Plein aire (painting outside—rain and bugs included) is my favorite place to be.
In 1997—with the help of a dozen or so other artists—Cedars Edge Gallery took shape. For the next fourteen years we explored the art market, taught classes, and ran the gallery. All this time I was painting and exploring the Delta, Montrose, Mesa and surrounding counties.
Photography has always been a means of keeping records and sources, and pleasure. Pottery, fibers, and collage also captured my interest. Finally I had the time and energy to work as an artist full time. These skills accentuated my experiences.
While in Delta, Colorado, I found a critique group to join and grow as a poet and writer. Several years ago, I was told by someone who knows, that I am now a poet. I do not know what that means, but I continue to write. At first, I wrote out of curiosity, then catharsis, followed by commitment. I write many poems about family and history. I also like to form poems by design, almost like painting with words.
As words are formed by design, I gather a greater understanding of how my art evolves. Someone (who knows) told me I am a master of color. Painting is just another medium. I do series of paintings about dogs in the west, and cats, plus a series of family history. I feel more in touch with my history and my family as I dig through old photos, research the past, and put it all on canvas or pastel paper.
The gallery members eventually went on to develop their own talents in other ways. Mary Ellen Miller, the last partner of the gallery, went to Florida, and I quit trying to keep up with the process of retail in 2010. In 2005 we had settled on Cedar Mesa and in the late spring of 2010 Raven’s Edge Studio became a reality. Here I can hop from computer to garden to easel and enjoy the scent of sage and dirt, and watch the clouds haul over Grand Mesa. Cedars Edge Gallery is my own entity and business name.
I wouldn't give up any of the history and art I share, and have shared, from painting at the kitchen table with my three year old—alizarin crimson on her diapers—or the galactic murals on my son’s bedroom. I am fond of my memories of teaching art, and creating murals of sixth graders learning color. Working with other artists gives me another outlook and direction. Someone who knows says I am a Renaissance woman.
Teaching now is a reality check. Here is what I know. They teach me more than I can ever teach them.
I can never paint more than I know, but I can never quit learning more. From insect to black hole there is more to see, and to aspire to put to paper. They are illustrations of my perspective of the world, things I have seen and recorded, with paint or with word.