QUEENS OF THE NIGHT

"As my sight diminished, I began abstracting forms and relying more on imagination and memory than visual perception. In many of these paintings done in the decade of the 1980s, I was inspired by the color and glamor, but also the dark side of what lies beneath much of the shiny surface of Hollywood."

—Barbara Romain

The 'Queens of the Night' collection captures the neon-slicked paradox of 1980s Hollywood—its glitter and grit, its allure and loneliness, its pageantry and pain. These works are love letters and exposés, portraits and mirrors, steeped in the dazzling artifice of a city that sells fantasy while burying truth just beneath its surface.

Created as Barbara Romain’s vision began to decline, these paintings mark a transitional moment in her artistic language. Realism gave way to abstraction, detail dissolved into memory, and surface beauty became a portal to deeper emotional textures. She painted what she felt—not just what she could still see. Inspired by drag performers, nightlife, street culture, and the theatrical masks of femininity and survival, this series captures the vibrancy and vulnerability of women navigating the nocturnal world of Los Angeles.

With bold brushwork and radiant palettes, Barbara elevates her subjects into mythic icons—femme fatales, showgirls, working women, drag queens, single mothers, seekers, survivors. Many were reflections of herself and the women around her: mothers raising children alone, performers building their own stages, artists surviving in the margins.

Color plays a leading role—hot pinks, bruised purples, flaming oranges—all the hues of a Hollywood sunset that never quite fades to black. But beneath the glamor lies tension. Figures blur and fragment. Words emerge. The viewer is asked to look again—to question the spectacle, to find the real person behind the lipstick, the gold lamé, the painted smile.

Queens of the Night is more than a reflection of a time and place—it is a meditation on what it means to be seen, misseen, or unseen altogether. Created by an artist whose own sight was slipping away, these paintings offer a vivid, empathetic vision of womanhood in all its complexity, especially in the liminal hours after sunset, when performance becomes survival and vulnerability becomes power.

L.A. BIMBOS/Q.O.T.N. Oil & Collage, 60’ x 72” Collection of Mr. & Mrs. Alan Jone, Malibu	VIEW OF THE SIGN Oil & Collage, 84” x 60”	POOLSHARK Oil & collage, 48” x 72”
HOTEL HOLLYWOOD Oil & collage, 84” x 60”	SPIRITS OF ROMAIN ST. GATHER FOR A BACKYARD L.A. BBQ	CRUISIN' THE BOULEVARD Oil & collage, 72” x 72”
CHRIS AT THE CAT & FIDDLE Oil, 48” x 36”	XMAS ON HOLLYWOOD BLVD. Oil, 24” x 36” Collection of F Patti Malkin, LA	SPIKE Oil, 24” x 36”
INTERIOR ON ROMAIN STREET Oil, 24” x 36”	JAMMIN' IN THE ALLEY Oil, Collection of Mr. & Mrs. Jeff Feinstein, Woodstock, NY	DISAPPEARANCE OF THE MOON Oil, 24” x 36”
HOLIDAY DINNER Oil, 48” x 72”	SCUBA BOY AT JEFF'S POOL Oil, 38” x 36”	KEEPING AN EYE OUT Oil, 24” x 20”
TAKING THE PLUNGE Oil, 18” x 24”	MADONNA & CHILD Oil, 20” x 16”	AGONY IN THE GARDEN Oil, 22” x 28”
LUNCH WITH ACHMED Oil, 48” x 48”	NIGHT OF THE SHOOTING STARS Oil, 48” x 48”	THE BIG APPLE Oil, 36” x 36”
MOTHER, WORKER, RULER, WITCH Oil, 72” x 48”	A WOMAN’S WORK IS NEVER DONE Oil, 72” x 48”