Barbara Tapp is Australian by birth but has spent the last 40 years or so in the United States, returning to her native country only for occasional vacations to see family and friends. Late last year she planned something more expansive. “I wanted to establish a new relationship with my homeland,” she says. “I thought, why not go on a path of learning and discovery, searching for paintings by some of my favorite Australian painters and traveling the countryside while getting to know the country I love?”
She added a few non-art-related goals to the trip as well. “I wanted to see as many native animals in the wild as possible,” she says, “and I was determined to find the best neenish tart.” (This classic Australian pastry features mock cream and raspberry jam under half-and-half chocolate and white icing.) Also on her culinary checklist were meat pies, fish and chips, and Aussie lollies.
Operating an all-wheel-drive Volkswagen, Tapp navigated torrential rain, triple-digit heat, floods, dry winds, and bushfires. “But almost no insects!” she laughs. By the end, she had traveled more than 6,000 miles.
FINDING BEAUTY IN THE EVERYDAY — IN WATERCOLOR
A dedicated plein air painter, Tapp uses watercolor to explore how people inhabit the land. “Choosing a subject and having something to say is paramount,” she explains. “I look for natural arrangements in both rural and urban settings — houses, yards, cars, boats, and junk—juxtaposed with trees, foliage, and land formations. Whatever the subject, it has to resonate visually or spark my curiosity. Sometimes, it just has to make me laugh.”
That sensibility runs through the works she created in Australia. Though she was surrounded by breathtaking scenery, her focus remained on the human presence within it. “My impressions of the landscape started forming right away,” she says, “beginning with the proportions of old Australian houses. The steep, corrugated iron roofs; high ceilings; and deep sheltered verandahs help manage climate extremes.”
In Behind Broken Fences, Sofala, NSW, we see the back of a weathered house with a tin roof and makeshift fence. An old car sits half-hidden by foliage. “This was an old gold-mining town,” Tapp explains. “For me, the painting tells a story about the ruggedness and tenacity of Australians. They built homes with simple materials, and you see how everything — like the galvanized water tank and Hills Hoist clothesline — is essential and perfectly suited to the climate.”
Tapp explores similar territory in The Verandah Fridge, where a refrigerator stands on the porch of an aging home and neat plastic trash bins line up in the otherwise overgrown yard. “Sometimes I shift elements around,” she says. “In this one, I moved the posts near the front door closer together to better suit the composition; they would never be built that way.” That blend of observed detail and compositional intent defines Tapp’s work. Her training as an architectural illustrator helps her anchor these scenes in solid perspective and finely judged angles, while her painter’s eye introduces expressive looseness in foliage and atmosphere.
St Arnaud Afternoon offers a sunlit glimpse of a small town bakery — an increasingly central gathering place in many Australian towns. “The baking is done on site,” Tapp says. “This is where I bought my neenish tarts, lollies, and meat pies.”
In her video workshop The Barbara Tapp Watercolor Method, the artist shares her signature approach to watercolor painting, and surprise … she starts by placing her dark shadow shapes to achieve maximum contrast!
