🗺️ Map-Inspired Abstract Artist
🎨 Structure, Pattern & Serendipity
🌀 Paint Skins, Layers & Cartographic Lines
✨ Fine Art Prints & Originals at
www.barton-arts.com My work begins with a cartographic foundation: maps, grids, and contours that reflect navigation, memory, and structure. Over this framework, I layer organic forms and geometric patterns to disrupt and reimagine the order beneath. This process becomes a visual meditation on how we impose structure onto a constantly shifting world while staying open to spontaneity and discovery. My technique is uniquely tactile and layered. For my acrylic and mixed media panels, I start by placing a piece of glass over a physical map. Using silicone caulk, I trace its lines, creating a mold that captures its essence. Once set, I build up at least 20 layers of acrylic paint on this mold. The result is a richly textured paint skin, which I peel away and transfer onto a new substrate. This “skin” becomes the heart of each piece, allowing me to edit and refine with additional layers, removing or adding paint to shape the final composition. All of my paintings begin with a map—both as material and metaphor. They serve as a starting point for exploration, inviting the viewer into a conversation between order and intuition, the known and the uncharted.
