Barbara Simmons received her first set of oil paints at 10 years of age. Before that time, she used to draw on every available paper that she could find. Barbara made pencil drawings of horses in her school text books. Drawings were and still are another way to write, to express thoughts.

While raising a family of four children, Barbara decided to return to school in 1974. She studied as a part time student for the next fifteen years and earned a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in art education. A variety of art media were the content of these studies. All had one result in common - TRANSPARENCY. The oils were transparent; the acrylics were transparent; the drawings were transparent; the sculpture had aspects of transparency. When Barbara finally started classes in watercolour in 1981, she realised the significance of what she had been doing during her years of study.

While she was studying English, Barbara found herself drawn to the "romantic" poets and their words visualizing the co-existence of man and nature. Nature has always been her source of inspiration for the images that she paints. However, colour, shape, and space are the abstract understructure in all her work. Colour in particular, is a continuing subject of study.

What Barbara has learned and what she is continuing to learn has become the content of the courses that she teaches. She finds teaching to be both motivational & inspirational for her own work.

Process is everything to Barbara. Her personal process has led her to be elected to the Société canadienne de l'aquarelle, the Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour, and the L'Institut des arts figuratifs.