About Barbara

The Artist

Barbara is a portrait and landscape painter whose work reflects a lifelong love for animals, nature, and the art of storytelling through brushstrokes. A Midwestern native with roots that trace back to renowned 19th-century portrait artist Albert Gallatin Hoyt, she found her way to Columbia in the early ’90s via Kentucky’s thoroughbred racing world.

Since then, she’s called the South home—raising her son, earning a master’s in Art Education at USC, and growing her art practice one commission at a time. Her paintings span portraits of beloved pets, people, and pastoral landscapes, often blending realism with painterly charm and inspired by artists like John Singer Sargent and Alfred Munnings.

Barbara works out of her cozy home studio with skylights, French doors, and an iPad always nearby. While her techniques have evolved over the years from photos taped to easels to digital references—her passion for light, color, and composition remains unchanged.