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Paintings Highlight Parish Center

Professional artist Barbara Beier sits in front of the three 8-by-8-foot paintings that were recently hung in the St. Henry parish center. All three paintings depict different eras of the German heritage of the church. Beier is director of music and liturgy at St. Henry. (John Hart/Daily Times)

By Margaret Krueger of the Watertown Daily Times , 09 20 2003

St. Henry Catholic School did not have to look far for inspiration when the staff decided to pursue plans to beautify the parish center.

School Principal Francine Butzine tapped Barbara Beier, who has been on staff for the past three years as director of music and liturgy. Beier is a professional artist as well as a professional musician, so the fit was perfect.

As a professional artist, Beier is best known for creating murals, but she had a better idea for the large walls of the parish center, which doubles as a gymnasium. Beier felt creating murals directly on the walls was not feasible because of the necessary scaffolding that would hinder the many events and activities held in the center, especially basketball games.

Her reluctance to create large murals on the walls had nothing to do with the scope of the project, Beier explained. "I do things big. That's why I am a muralist as well as an artist. I have done lots of big projects."

What she had in mind was something as extensive in scope as murals but required less climbing for the artist. Fueled with the theme of highlighting the St. Henry German roots, she came up with the idea of the three 8-by-8-foot paintings which now grace the south wall of the parish center. The paintings show three different seasons, eras and locations, but all scenes depict the German heritage of the parish.

The first painting, called "Via Dolorosa," shows an early morning in spring looking through one of the 12 gates into the city of Old Jerusalem. A shadow indicates the empty cross of the first Easter.

The second painting, called "Sonntag im Abend," features a winter evening in a village in the Bavarian Alps. "Many of St. Henry's first parishioners came from the southern part of Germany," said Beier, adding that it depicts the calmness and serenity of the Sabbath with people gathering in front of a church for evening vespers.

The third is an early farming scene that takes place in an area similar to Watertown on a fall harvest afternoon. "Our early German parishioners had agricultural roots in the community," Beier noted.

Many of the parishioners will get a first look at the paintings during the church's celebration of Heritage Fest to take place on Saturday, Oct. 11, when limited edition prints will be available for purchase, said Butzine, who spearheaded the project along with members of the Home and School Association.

"The Home and School Association provided most of the funds and will be selling the prints," said Butzine. The organization has been setting money aside for the anticipated project for several years. Other donations, such as the proceeds from "penny wars" at the school, have also been put toward the beautification plan.

Butzine said decorating plans for the center, added 12 years ago to the school, got under way under the leadership of a previous principal.

Size was an issue throughout the planning process, challenging Beier to come up with a workable plan for the paintings which had to be large enough to compliment the sizable walls of the parish center but small enough to fit through doorways. That meant each 8-by-8-foot painting had to be done in two sections.

Although she chose a foam-core backing, the addition of 1/4-inch Plexiglas for protection from bouncing balls brought the weight of each painting up to a hefty 160 pounds. The Plexiglas also had to be in two sections for each painting.

Creating paintings rather than murals gave Beier the opportunity to paint in the comfort of her Mukwonago home which was filled with 4-by-8-foot sheets of foam-core. "I had to lay on the floor for the lower part and use a ladder toward the top," she said, referring to the painting process which was done with acrylics.

Framing and hanging the three paintings was a monumental task undertaken by parishioner Damien Denault.

Beier loves talking about the paintings and hopes to add captions to explain the ethnic and religious significance of each one, but for right now she has moved on to another project.

"I am busy writing music for the polka Mass for Heritage Fest. I have never done that before so it is a new challenge," she said with a smile.

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from a 2006 brochure:

Old Tuscany, Barbara Beier's favorite subject, comes alive in her work. “I obviously romance the past in my [aintings." Her art reflects ordinary people doing ordinary things - the fishermen with their catch, village market stalls or shocks of grain in a farmer's field. These large-scale scenes have become a trademark. "My work is realistic, but stylized. I want to create the ambiance of the era." As an artist, Barbara enjoys hearing people say they feel they can “walk into my pantings."

“I paint large! My style is often bold and very free. Sometimes even I don't know where my art is going! I inhale the scenes and exhale the art." Coupled with her desire to recall scenes of the past, is Barb's desire to create moveable art - a mural painted in sections that can be refitted or recombined to suit a new setting in our mobile society.

Beier's formal art education began at age eight as a student at the Notre Dame Motherhouse in Milwaukee. "The nuns who were teaching me were, themselves, artists of distinction." In high school Barbara won scholarships to the Milwaukee Art Institute and Journal/Sentinel calendar competition awards. She minored in art and majored in music at college. Beier enjoyed a career in the Church as Director of Music and Liturgy. There her artistic abilities led to a three mural commission for a parish anniversary in 2004.

Barbara was invited to do music ministry in Israel in 1994, 1995 and 1996. These trips offered her the opportunity to absorb the life and landscapes resulting in The Via Dororosa mural. A visit to Cornwall, England, provided images for the ancient towns and villages populated with people of Barb's imagination. Touring Ireland, Scotland and Wales offered more opportunities to enrich her visual storehouse.

Ms. Beier has exhibited art at the James Store Gallery in Waukesha, Studio Six in Cedarburg and other area galleries and juried shows in Wisconsin, Michigan and Illinois. Currently her work can be seen at David's and at The Market in Watertown, Lake Country Fine Arts, and at her home studio. She has been invited to show her work at the Paul Yank Gallery in Cederburg later this year. Northwestern Mutual Company purchased two of Beier’s original paintings for their old schoolhouses collection.

Currently Barbara has 17 originals in print.