Barbara Schwan is a multidisciplinary artist working in painting, drawing, and ceramics. Her practice is rooted in spontaneity and intuition. Across all mediums, her work invites viewers into a space of magical realism, one where imagination and memory converge and the boundaries between inner and outer worlds dissolve.

Raised in New Mexico and shaped by her studies in both Paris and California, Schwan’s compositions often feel discovered rather than constructed, guided by an openness to movement, rhythm, and emotional resonance.

Her recent Dream Series (2023–2026), created in colored pencil, was sparked by her discovery of Hahnemühle velour paper, a surface whose tactile softness allows for layered, atmospheric depth and a luminous, ethereal quality. The ongoing French Songs Series began as a collaboration with a pianist, translating live piano improvisations into visual form. These works evolved into drawings on musical manuscript paper, where line and gesture function as a kind of visual music, an interplay between sound, movement, and mark-making. Most recently, colored pencil drawings of landscapes have emerged, depicting the wide open spaces and exquisite beauty of things that are.

Schwan’s work is held in private collections and has been featured in numerous auctions that benefit nonprofit organizations close to her heart. She lives and works in Venice, California.