“There is a voice that I listen to when I am painting outside. It begins with the sound of wind in the trees or flowing water broken by the call of a bird or distant traffic. In this ebb and flow of collective sounds in the environment, I see the ever-changing sunlight, feel the wind on my face, and a conversation emerges. It is a conversation with place, an encounter with the light that I seek to capture. Its fleeting quality makes me want to pursue it even more. As these precious moments are filtered through my perception, I respond to them with the language of painting.”

Barbara Hirst received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Manitoba’s School of Art in 1987 where she studied with Canadian artist, Ivan Eyre, and was honoured with the university gold medal for her drawing thesis.

Hirst has traveled and painted en plein air extensively in Scotland, Italy, and Ireland where she had an exhibition in 2008. At that time, a book was published in southwest Ireland which she illustrated for Irish poet, Bridget Moraine. It was initially in Ireland, while working on an independent study at the Tyrone Guthrie Center in Co. Monaghan, where she began to shift from drawing to painting as her main creative focus.

The desire to paint in different locations results from her aspiration to capture nuances of light. Hirst describes herself as, “forever in pursuit of light.” It was this motivation that took her to mountain locations like Lake O’Hara in Yoho National Park (Canada) to interpret the atmospheric effects of light reflected off the water. In Italy, travels to Venice inspired playful abstractions of architecture reflected in the canals as well as lake life derived from nautical activities on Lake Garda near Riva del Garda and Malcesine and Arco Castle in Northern Italy. 

Currently, she teaches Art at Webber Academy in Calgary and continues her studio practice. Most recently, large plein air pieces of Alberta have been her focus. Her work can be found in collections throughout Canada, the United States, and Europe.