Manhattan Arts International Proudly Presents Barbara Brown with this Award in Our “Art Inspired by Nature” Exhibition
Barbara Brown combines her deep connection to the natural world with her mission to bring the beauty and wonder of the forest to others. She sees a world “where nature in all its beauty is held in reverence, where we in the human family have fallen back in love with the natural world . . . for we take care of what we love.”
It is an honor and pleasure to present this interview with Barbara Brown. While curating the “Art Inspired by Nature” 2026 exhibition I selected her to receive a Special Recognition Art Award. Barbara’s paintings are not only aesthetically beautiful, healing and provide a sense of renewal and restoration, they also raise our awareness about our precious natural environment.
Barbara is an artist, author, filmmaker, and forest-walker. She lives in the forest on a mountainside in the wild West Kootenay region of the Canadian Rockies, in British Columbia, Canada. She has won many awards and she shows her work annually locally in the Columbia Basin Culture Tour, among other exhibitions. Her collectors span the globe.
Barbara has been a member of the Manhattan Arts International Art Gallery for several years and has received numerous awards from us. Her art has been featured in many of our exhibitions including “HerStory” 2026 and the “Love, Peace, Unity & Hope” 2025.
This interview is timely. This year severe, widespread Canadian wildfire smoke triggered hazardous air quality alerts across the U S. We became acutely aware that Canadian’s forest problems also impact us. According to this statement by Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification, (PEFC), an international non-profit organization that promotes sustainable forest management, forests are invaluable to our planet, communities, and economies. They regulate the climate, cycle water, shield against natural hazards, nurture biodiversity, and support countless species – including our own.
Take your time to thoroughly view Barbara’s transcendent paintings and read her words of wisdom.
Please visit this page often and share it with your loved ones and friends.
Spider Web, oil on canvas, 12″ x 16″. It is featured in the “Art Inspired by Nature” Exhibition and Video.
The Interview with Barbara Brown Presented by Renee Phillips
In this interview Barbara shares her unique and superior artistic vision, knowledge about forests, and more. At the end of this page you’ll find links to several pages where you may view more of her art and learn about her many career achievements. You will also find a link to her website to find out how to purchase her art.
RP: Barbara, Thank you for spending time in your busy schedule to answer the questions for this important interview. My first question is what do you love most about being an artist?
BB: Being an artist is so important to me. It wasn’t until I was older, into my late fifties, when I finally mustered the courage to embrace it and take the plunge. Now, 13 years later, it is so deeply fulfilling to me. What I love the most is sharing my vision, seeing how my work lights people up, and can even wake them up, inspiring them to bring the beauty and the wonder of the natural world into their lives.
RP: What first inspired you to create paintings of the forest?
BB: It’s my love of the forest that inspires me so. The beauty of it, and the magic found there. When I freed my life up to see if I could be an artist I didn’t even know what I wanted to paint. But at one point I asked myself “Well, what is it that you love the most?” The answer came immediately, “Walking in the forest.” So I began to paint the wild woods, and I have never looked back.
RP: It is fascinating that you live in a cabin that you and your husband built. You are also a daily forest walker. Please explain how does your life directly influence your art?
BB: Yes, I live in a cabin that we built ourselves in the forest on a mountainside in a fairly wild and remote region of southeast British Columbia, Canada; and I have had a daily practice, for 28 years now, of walking in the woods here. This time spent in the forest feeds me, body and soul. I feel a oneness with the natural world surrounding me, and the urge to share all this beauty, through my art, never wavers.
Autumn Triquetra, oil on canvas, 16″ x 20″
RP: Symbols are inspirational components of your inimitable style. How did your use of them come about?
BB: I have always held a fascination for symbolism, for mysticism, and for mythology—how these reach back into our subconscious and inform our deeper experience of life and how we see it. And when I began the first of my forest paintings I noticed I was intuitively forming circles and ovals with my brush. I loved this added dimension to the forest scenes so I decided to consciously incorporate some aspect of otherworldly symbolism into every painting going forward.
RP: Where can your art be viewed currently in person? Do you have any future exhibitions planned?
BB: Currently I have paintings in a lovely group show in a gallery in a town not far from where I live, “Healing Forest: in honour of what forests give us,” at Tilted Gallery, in Creston BC. I have had a busy past couple of years with showings and presentations and am now feeling the need for some quieter more inward time over the coming months so I’m not actively pursuing in-person exhibitions at this time.
RP: What do you recommend we do to express our appreciation for our forests and/or what steps should we take to protect and nurture our forests?
BB: What I believe to be paramount is our reconnection with the natural world, including forests. When we feel ourselves to be one with nature; when we fall back in love with her, and get back in touch with feelings of reverence and awe for her beauty and her wisdom; it is then that we will, naturally, take care of her. As we move through our lives we will, naturally, consider her in all the ways we conduct ourselves.
Cathedral, oil on canvas, 16″ x 12″‘
RP: Are there any forest protection/nature organizations you support and recommend that we should also support?
BB: Here in British Columbia, Canada I support Ancient Forest Alliance for all the good work they are doing in trying to protect our old-growth forests. I donate 5% of all my revenue to them. TreeSisters.org is another excellent organization that is working to restore tropical rainforests around the world. I also think The Nature Conservancy is very effective and admirable in protecting wild lands globally.
RP: What art plans do you have for later this year and 2027 that you would like to share with us?
BB: I am planning to go on somewhat of a retreat over this coming winter. Feeling the need for a time of quiet introspection, I am wanting to explore some nature writing. And I will of course continue to paint — I’ve begun a new painting that I am excited about, inspired by time I spent last summer in a forest in Scotland that my great-great grandmother used to haunt. Creative time is calling out to me.
Shown above is “Marilyn’s Forest”, oil on canvas, 20″ x 16″. This painting was selected for the Manhattan Arts International “HerStory 2024” Invitational Online Exhibition.
Additional notes: Barbara holds a Bachelor of Science in Geography and a Diploma of Fine Art.
Barbara is also the author of SYLVAN REFLECTIONS: Wanderings, Paintings & Ponderings From the Forest, which contains her forest paintings, poetic writings and access to a film that comes with the book, that all transport readers into her beloved natural realm. Visit Barbara’s website for more information.
Visit Barbara’s Website: barbarabrownart.com
Visit Barbara’s Page in our Online Gallery
View The “Art Inspired by Nature” Online Exhibition
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