Barbara Kieffer Rowe

Barbara Kieffer Rowe updated their business hours.

The Black Hills is more than a place. Fossils, geologic outcrops, pungent pines and sweeping vistas fuse together into a presence that becomes a part of who you are. It's no wonder there's an artistic force that springs from that presence and lends itself to multi-media expression.

Equines are a “mane” attraction in my life, are visually in mind, and within a pasture’s reach away. Each equine beauty embodies a unique color, confirmation, movement, and sprinkled personality.

Horses have always provided fun and fascination, and their evolutionary process sparks my intrigue. The backyard of the South Dakota Badlands once supported the 30-million-year-old Mesohippus. For this and many other reasons, paintings of my pasture buddies pop up on many of my canvases.

If you find yourself baking on a stage of black shale while the sun burns above you, see if you can spot the iridescence of an ancient fossil. Odds are the animal’s last swim happened about 65 million years ago. But if lucky, you’ll find a form that’s as fragile as it is permanent, aesthetically shaped, and adorned with an incredible amount of detail.

In the following pieces, fossils as subject matter provide viewers with a glimpse of Earth’s ancient animals.

If you ever find yourself on a high, jagged ledge somewhere in the Black Hills, chances are you’ll have the opportunity to gaze out from 1.7-billion-year-old granite. And it’s just possible that it will change you.

Your mind will try to absorb the wonder of surrounding geological units and processes — like intrusive magma, transgressive seas, wind-blown sand, and tropical sediments. All the while, it’s the process of erosion that allows you to immerse in these ancient environments, which are reflected in the artwork in this section.

The Arabian horse breed dates back 4,500 years to the Middle East. Bedouins enhanced the composition and movement of their Arabians by using saddles adorned with colorful fabric, beads, and metals. This painting depicts an Arab’s gentle head tuck and its brightly adorned gear. Saddlery colors repeat in the background with spontaneous acrylic washes and delicately hand-beaded medallions. The orchestration of the multimedia shapes and colors achieve embodiment of this royal Arabian horse.

Artwork: "Roma"
Acrylic and beadwork on canvas | 29” x 24”

When in the Black Hills, you’re never far from a stand of ponderosa pines. They form the backdrop of many thoughts and experiences. Here, green, luminous malachite crystals merge with pines. The resulting image is one of embedded crystals fingered by mystical clouds and reflected on the still waters of Stockade Lake in Custer State Park. This acrylic painting captures a haze of cool serenity and hints at fires that once blazed through the park.

Artwork: "Blaze at Stockade Lake"
Acrylic and Malachite Crystals | 16” x 11”

Two ammonites spin in an aqueous dance as they dive within a water column. The “siphuncle” organ facilitated this vertical movement by allowing gases and water to enter the animals’ chambers.

In this work, the appearance of water emerged by touching color-loaded brushes to a wet paper surface. The result was a spontaneous flow of pigments and an uncontrollable saturation of pigment within salt crystals. Thickly applied acrylic paint details the ribs and nodes of the textured forms, and torn copper paper stabilizes the animals.

Artwork: "Ammonites — Aquatic Dancing Duo"
Acrylic on paper | 22” x 28”