Barbara Stewart was born in Schenectady, New York on April 2,
1941. She got involved at an early age as a child actress on
various radio programs. Her family eventually settled in a suburb of
Miami, Florida. She studied acting at the Ruth Forman school as a
young girl and eventually did some modeling. In 1959 she came out
to California with the idea of breaking into movies and she moved
into the Hollywood Studio Club, a YWCA facility for young,
aspiring actresses. She has appeared in nearly 400 films since
then.
In 1968 she began painting little paintings that she signed
"Lyn", (her middle name), which she gave away to friends and
eventually the Ellsworth Gallery in Newport Beach took a liking
to them and began to sell them. Eventualy a member of the
Guggenheim family bought four of them and called them "The Four
Seasons". Later she exhibited at numerous galleries including the
Village Artistry in Carmel, the Copenhagen Gallery in Solvang and
the Emerson Gallery in Encino, the Gallery Hawaii and many
others. One of her paintings, "God Bless Us All With Love" was
picked to represent Christmas by the city of Carmel in 1976. In
the same year, four of her paintings were selected by a prominent
art publisher to be put into their print catalogue. Her paintings
are in numerous collections.
Her painting style can be described as primitive, naive, and has
been described as "Grandma Moses injected with a little Wysocki or Streeter Blair."
Barbara paints mostly of her memories of growing up in up-state
New York. Some of her characters seem to be painted with a
single-haired brush, but always with affection.
In 1976 Barbara's painting and acting career came to an abrupt
halt with an almost fatal car accident. Her entire right side was
paralyzed and her vision was affected adversely. It was a slow
process, but with God's help the healing process was complete and
in 1987 she was able to paint again.
Barbara passed away suddenly in March of 2000. She had been diagnosed
with Crest Syndrome a month before.
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