BARBARA ROMAIN

“These are oil paintings done before my sight loss. Many themes have continued to the present—music, living in Los Angeles, female nature, mythology.”
—Barbara Romain

 

"Who Are You?" is the beginning of the conversation—a foundational collection of oil paintings created before Barbara Romain’s diagnosis of retinitis pigmentosa. These works mark the emergence of an artist whose clarity of voice, even in early form, foretold the powerful journey ahead.

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Here, Barbara’s visual acuity is intact—but the spirit of her later work is already pulsing beneath the surface. The themes that would define her future output are present in full force: the influence of music, the mythos of womanhood, the shimmering contradictions of Los Angeles, and an intuitive fascination with archetype, ritual, and personal narrative.

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Painted in lush oils, the pieces in "Who Are You?" reflect her formal training and realist background, but they also hint at a surreal, symbolic language in bloom. Female figures are central—sometimes glamorous, sometimes raw, often powerful and ambiguous. Urban landscapes shimmer with heat and mystery. Musical undertones reverberate in the compositions like a bassline—implied, pulsing, alive.

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​There is a striking emotional immediacy in these works, a cinematic stillness cut with a painter's intimacy. Hollywood is not just a place in this series—it is a stage, a trap, a dreamscape, and a mirror. Through these paintings, Barbara asks not only "Who are you?" but also: Who are we beneath the roles? Who are we when the lights go down?

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The name of the collection itself—Who Are You?—reads like both a question and a challenge. These early works do not seek to answer it definitively but instead offer a visual meditation on identity, femininity, and place. They document a time before loss and reinvention, yet they carry the DNA of everything Barbara would become.

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Looking back through this collection is not simply an act of nostalgia—it is a glimpse into the persistent core of her artistry. Even before her vision changed, Barbara was already painting from somewhere deeper: a place of myth, memory, rhythm, and emotional truth.

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