Laurie Barna is a native northern Californian, who currently resides in the Almaden area of San Jose. As a child, she knew that she had a God-given gift for drawing photorealistically and later, took several Art classes in college while pursuing a professional nursing degree. Her first experience with watercolor came in the fall of 1999, when she took a Los Gatos Recreation Department class. It was love at first brushstroke!

In her second student show in the spring of 2001, her painting of the Arc de Triomphe was selected by her peers as “Best of Show.”  Several of her paintings have garnered her “Artist of the Month” awards by her Los Gatos Art Association peers and her work has been juried into both LGAA and Santa Clara Valley Watercolor Society member juried shows.  “I love the challenge of painting with such a versatile yet exacting medium and creating that certain ‘glow’ using color and value.”  She has donated paintings to the Los Gatos Art Museum's annual Touch My HeArt fundraiser and to the Wild Bird Center to motivate donors to give to the local wildlife education and rehabilitation center.

In the Spring of 2006, she took the challenge of watercolor painting "Beyond the Obvious" and began painting the Statue of Liberty as a still life and in series. She discovered that she is a content painter, and this series has given her an artistic voice to communicate her strong feelings about Lady Liberty and America. Through this continuing series, she asks the viewer to think...to question...and to remember.  She engages the viewer in a uniquely American dialogue about the nature and experience of liberty, with a strong sense of both personal and national journey being evident in her series.  The Liberty Series is ongoing, with her new goal being to take Liberty to #100.  "Popular Art is a celebration of the Image.  Great Art is the celebration of an Idea." (Preston Metcalf, Associate Curator of the Triton Museum of Art in Santa Clara) This is her Idea--the Liberty Series.  Her desire is to make this series available for public viewing as much as possible.  Should you have any suggestions or contact information for future appropriate public/civic/government venues in which to exhibit this series, please contact her.