The painting universe of Olimpia Hinamatsuri Barbu places the artist in a problems aria in which the art criticism grasps the authoress’ insistent inclination towards the human zone. The figurative convincingly pursued by the authoress is served with the expressive forms of a reinvented classicism, the line having frequently a particularly address, not involving the color in the subject’s treating. The expressiveness of touches, when the painting comes to wrap the graphics, is in conformity with the chosen motif; the strictness or, on the contrary, the discrete freedom of touches depends on the message imparted by each work. Serving a subtle volumetric description, affirming delicately the light, but also the shadow, the colors are skillfully controlled; the only contrasts accepted by the painter are those which shape delicate chromatic harmonies. The pictorial image is realized with limpidity, the artist facilitating thus the reading to the spectator. The perspective, slightly suggested – discreetly focusing the spectator’s attention to what happens in the foreground – is realized by superposition of elements which build up the work iconography. The religious painting was one of the important lessons the artist received and this natural relationship with the fresco art is found at the level of contrast ratios, which do not admit harshness. As a consequence the delicate contrasts definitely become, at least in this phase of creation, the undeniable signature of Olimpia Hinamatsuri Barbu. Ph.D. Roxana Păsculescu Art critic

4. Stravopoleos church (acrylic
on canvas, 11x17 cm, 2002)