—Arshia Simkin, The Underline
Maya Barton is now living the artistic life she’s always dreamt of: she has been a full-time artist for the past three years, ever since she retired from her job in the fields of biomedical engineering and biostatistics 
and since her kids have gone off to college. She used to paint as a child and while her father would comment that her work was “pretty,” her mother was adamant that Barton would pursue the sciences so that she could be financially independent.
But even as an engineer, Barton learned about drawing—things like “perspective and measuring [accurately],” she said. Barton’s artistic journey has been defined by both a desire for mastery over form and a desire to play: she began by dabbling in oils and she had always used water colors. Initially she was interested in the Old Masters, but soon became obsessed with florals and still life. She credits the North Carolina Botanical Garden in Chapel Hill with much of her inspiration for pursuing art: she began taking beginner classes and was soon enraptured with botanical drawings. She also took classes at the Carrboro Arts Center and tried out portraiture, painting her sons, daughter-in-law, and friends. During the pandemic, she turned to YouTube, watching videos and tutorials from artists she admired, such as Paul Foxton.
Flowers in particular are fascinating to Barton—for their aesthetic pleasures—but also because there is so much to learn about their biology; from an artistic perspective, she was delighted to learn that the “translucency of human skin” is the “same translucency” as the petals of a flower and that many of the same principles of painting could be applied to both. Barton noted that, as she paints, she’s “learning new things about botany every day”: for example, “the botanical garden had a bloom of flowers of the American columbo [which] is apparently native to North Carolina. It’s a one-generation plant that lasts anywhere up to 30 years and [in] anywhere between 19 to 30 years, it will bloom once,” she said. Barton said that although she’s been told many times that she should sell her art, she more often gifts it: she painted the American columbo bloom and gave the painting to the curator of the Botanical Garden, who had first planted the flower nearly two decades ago.
Barton also loves painting orchids and learning about them; she laughed, saying, “I could give you a long list of native orchids.”
Ultimately, for Barton, art is about both precision—getting the proportions just right—and creativity—imbuing a work with “the glow and expression” of what it is representing. “That’s the thing about art,” Barton said, “you’re constantly learning, and you’re constantly doing, but you never get to the point where you’re happy with it. So that’s what I’m working on now—refining and refining.” This pursuit of perfection isn’t discouraging to Barton; rather, it’s invigorating: “I’ve got a long ways to go,” she said, “but I enjoy it.”
Learn more about Maya Barton’s at the Orange County Artists Guild website: https://www.ocagnc.org/artist-profile/maya-barton/; on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/mayaraobarton
