Q: What is your earliest memory of wanting to be an artist? (Question from...
A charcoal self-portrait circa 1988 when I was a Navy Lieutenant A: I don’t believe I have any such ‘early memories.’ I came to art late and my journey to becoming an artist was circuitous, to say the...
View ArticleQ: How do you work and approach your subject? (Question from “Arts Illustrated”)
At work A: Undoubtedly, I could not make my work without UART sandpaper since my entire pastel technique evolved around it. I use 400 0r 500 grit. My favorite thing about it is its ‘tooth’ (i.e....
View ArticlePearls from artists* # 467
Udaipur, India *an ongoing series of quotations – mostly from artists, to artists – that offers wisdom, inspiration, and advice for the sometimes lonely road we are on. As students confronted with...
View ArticleQ: When did you decide and what prompted you to become an artist? (Question...
Naval Officer Candidate Barbara Rachko, circa 1983 A: In the mid-1980s I was a thirty-three-year-old Navy lieutenant, working a soul-crushing job as a computer analyst on the midnight shift in a...
View ArticlePearls from artists* # 496
“Raconteur,” soft pastel on sandpaper, 58″ x 38″ Image, 70″ x 50″ Framed *an ongoing series of quotations – mostly from artists, to artists – that offers wisdom, inspiration, and advice for the...
View ArticleQ: What is your process? (Question from artamour)
Some of Barbara’s pastels A: For thirty-six years I have worked exclusively in soft pastel on sandpaper. Pastel, which is pigment and a binder to hold it together, is as close to unadulterated color...
View ArticleQ: How has the use of photography in your work changed over the decades?
New York, NYA: From the beginning in the mid-1980s I used photographs as reference material. My late husband, Bryan, would shoot 4” x 5” negatives of my elaborate setups using his Toyo-Omega view...
View ArticlePearls from artists* # 580
Barbara’s Studio *an ongoing series of quotations – mostly from artists, to artists – that offers wisdom, inspiration, and advice for the sometimes lonely road we are on. Love is the spirit that...
View ArticleQ: I saw your book of photos. Very nice. How do you keep track of inventory?...
Barbara’s portfolio book A: Every time I finish a pastel painting I order an 8” x 10” c-print at Duggal Visual Solutions. I started doing this in the 1980s when I was a portrait artist and the company...
View ArticlePearls from artists* # 590
Barbara’s Studio: when you fall in love with pastel! *an ongoing series of quotations – mostly from artists, to artists – that offers wisdom, inspiration, and advice for the sometimes lonely road we...
View ArticlePearls from artists* # 595
Film still from “Barbara Rachko: True Grit,” directed by Jennifer Cox, Moto Films LLC *an ongoing series of quotations – mostly from artists, to artists – that offers wisdom, inspiration, and advice...
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