Outdoor displays of Barbara Hesse Baron’s art can be found in many places around Miami Lakes.
And through the month of April, her oil paintings of botanicals are on exhibit at Miami Lakes Town Hall.
“I chose her because she is a 2020 Town of Miami Lakes Women of Distinction award winner and a woman artist, and we wanted to feature her,” Felicia Salazar, chair of the Cultural Affairs Committee, said about the show that went up in March (during Women’s History Month) and celebrates nature too (Earth Day is April 22).
“I’m excited about the show,” said Baron, 69.
She and her husband John Baron moved to Miami Lakes in 1987 and raised two children in town.
A graphic artist, Baron works from photos. Her canvases burst with the lush and intense colors found in the subtropical South Florida landscape.
“I like to put something out there that is beautiful but also make it realistic and capture flaws or things that are dead or have an imperfection, because they are real,” Baron said. “I do pump up the colors though.”
Drivers on Miami Lakes Drive may notice five formerly dull utility boxes wrapped in Baron’s vibrant prints.
Baron also participated in the Miami Lakes cow sculpture project that pays homage to the town’s agricultural history.
Her two life-size painted bovine sculptures are on Main Street, in front of the offices for The Graham Companies and the Keyes Welcome Center.
She also touched up the cow sculpture in front of the Baptist Health Urgent Care Clinic on Wellness Way/Northwest 77th Avenue.
Baron has created banners that promote things to do along Main Street and made the holiday banners displayed on Miami Lakes Drive at Christmastime.
“It’s pretty cool,” she said about seeing her work in some many places in town. “I designed the logo for the Lake Martha sign on Miami Lakes Drive. It’s kind of fun to see things pop up everywhere. But I’ve been here a long time.”
Baron majored in graphics and advertising design at the University of Florida and also studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts of Florence of Italy and at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in Miami.
She worked as a designer for a folding carton company and later built her own graphic design business.
The paintings are something she does for herself, and to sell at festivals.
Back at Town Hall, her canvases are as large as 3 feet by 5 feet and are studies of orchids, succulents, water lilies, hibiscus, bromeliads and philodendrons.
She started painting botanicals in 2009 and some canvases in the show date back to that era, she said.
“I’m glad women are being more recognized now,” Baron said about being chosen by the committee. “It’s a little different for me because ever since I’ve gotten married, I’ve worked from my home studio, since 1988. To be a woman and a business owner, I’ve never had employees and have always had my own business.
“I’ve been a business owner, a woman and never thought about being a minority,” Baron said. “It’s just what I did. I didn’t have to compete for an equal salary, it was always self-determined. I never felt like I was blazing a trail.”
She said the fine art she has created was never her primary source of income.
“So I never felt obliged to work at it without the labor of love part of it,” Baron said. “I never worked fast on this and wasn’t forced to. They were just for me. … It’s a source of joy.”
The paintings are for sale, though prices are not listed in the show. Baron’s contact information is available at the exhibit at Town Hall, 6601 Main St., 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.
More of her work may be viewed on Instagram at barbara_hesse_baron_paintings.