Barbara Juliet Thorburn’s formal training as first a graphic artist and then fine artist in the 1980s, took her from her native Jamaica, to Florida in the United States, and then to Florence, Italy. Art lovers were finally introduced to the young artist’s work in 1994 at her first solo exhibition at a popular Kingston gallery. For Thorburn, it would be her first of thirteen successful solo shows in as many years, a schedule made even busier by the various group exhibitions in which she would also participate. Both her solo and group shows would take her to the United States on several occasions.

Influenced by her multicultural heritage and inspired by her artist grandmother, Barbara Parsons, Thorburn has always been drawn to nature’s energy, the offerings of the outdoors being her signature subjects of choice. Today, as one of Jamaica’s premier nature artists, she is renowned for her spirited, indeed soulful watercolours and illustrations that celebrate the island’s privileged landscape, exotic trees and flora.

Sensing the need to stretch her creative core, Thorburn travelled to a watercolour workshop in New Mexico in 1998, where she spent weeks honing her skills while casting her eye and imagination at the expansive terrain and skies. On her return home, Thorburn continued producing, and by 2004 accepted the resistance she had built up against working with a new medium. Late that year she decided to expand her repertoire, and began working with oils in 2005. Applying the same skillful eye for nature, light and colour to this new medium, her latest pieces have been received with much enthusiasm.


Watercolours
Thorburn’s representational pieces mark her earlier days as a young artist, and show her ability to reproduce with her paintbrush precisely what her eyes capture.

The addition of ethereal pieces mirrors her appreciation of and talent for the more abstract. Dancing with magic and whimsy, these pieces have become an instant favourite among her followers.

Thorburn has recently introduced jewelled ethereals, which involves a technique of adhering glass to watercolour. The ironic result of this tactile method is a beautiful homage to feeling above form.


Oils
Her new passion by her own admission, Thorburn’s oil paintings are by and large symbolic in terms of imagery, with the subject’s essence quietly coming to the fore in each memorable piece.