Neal Barbosa Artist Page

Neal Barbosa Paints to live jazz
© 2024 Neal Barbosa

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Biography

Name:Neal Barbosa Place of birth: Santa Ana, CA Date of birth: 9/23/66 I grew up in El Toro CA. My mother tells that I have been drawing since I was 9 years old I didn';t feel like a real Artist until the mid 80s when I left Eltoro, and moved north to Sonoma County. My uncle bought me my first airbrush and turned me on to the artworks of Stanley Mouse, Andalton Kelley, Riscard Ash, Pat Ryan, Don Delew and Nat Quick. I was really inspired by there full colour t-shirts and monster calendars, and sharp images began airbrushing. Sometimes 4 to 5 hrs strait. I stayed with the techneek for several years, then in the 90s I became interested in acrylic paints, I began painting acrylic on canvass, I am self taught and have had no formal art lessons. My artwork is spontaneous, and I enjoy painting abstracts. I like to paint strange things to get peoples attention. I love to sing my art work before I finish it. Things and places I've painted include shoes, pants, couches, pillow cases, ties, mattcornfoots ceiling in his house, sammy hagars jacket, the bathroom at Johnnys Java in coffee house in cotatie, CA t-shirts doors, wooden ducks, telephons, beads, and many other items too numerous to list. Some well deserved thanks; thank you mamma for having me, and quitting smoking before you decided to bring me into this world. I would like to thank Dan for designing this site for me, and for trading links. Bison brewing company for lending me their pub to exhibit my first art show ever in Berkely CA. Your the bomb Taylor made coffee for delivering 4x9 foot pieces. Cheekos coffee for showing my art in Sebastopol CA. Much appreciated. Thank you to all my friends and acquaintances, who have bought my artwork. Your great, thank you to all my radio listeners. Keep your ear to the ground! Special thanks to Nanette Owens, for getting me off my beer drinking and doing something with my art. thanks for buying my pictures and ties and thanks for typing all my materials. oh mamma!!! Please feel free to put my site on your web-page as a link bye buy for now ‘peace and two beers’ Neal Barbosa 1/25/2000 All Art Done By Neal Ray Barbosa!!

Artist's Statement

my favorite documentry :gaped tooth women by les blank.ok my artist statement:i would realy love to paint live during some ones next private party or event.


Morris & Barbosa www.barbosathon.com
By Michelle O’Kane


I arrived at Petaluma’s Ground Up Cafe to see and hear Morris & Barbosa improv Jazz and performance art show. I sat down on the burnt umber velvet couch with a latte and a piece of hot cherry pie slathered in whipped cream, as if that wasn’t enough to spike my happy-meter, I became instantly intrigued by the stage in front of me, strewn with paper-plate paint pallets that look like big multi-colored polka-dots in front the bass drum, up against the amps and scattered haphazardly amongst the cords.





Neal Barbosa, the artist, is wearing a spotless white terry-cloth bathrobe, his pocket full of brushes and on his head a helmet-like-hat made of a manipulated melted LP (The Rolling Stones’ Satanic Majesty’s Request) with dangling gold-foil tabs to give it flare. He resembles a fighter dancing in the ring, sizing-up his the blank canvas in front of him. The anticipation of watching Neal turn himself into a human Handi-Wipe in that over-bleached white robe was exciting enough, but then the musicians began to play.

In less than three bars, Lee Penny on bass and Zachary Morris on drums took me out of Petaluma and into a smoke-filled Paris nightclub with Charlie Parker sitting anonymously at a dark corner table. Their sound so classic, so clean, so zoned, I wondered how many hours these guys had been warming up.

The drum solo transports Neal as he chews on one brush; his swipes electrify the canvas with every jazz sizzle of the cymbals.

Now the music brings us back to America, urban jazz of ‘60s Detroit. A little funk pierces the bass line and Neal places a toilet bowl plunger in the upper-right quadrant of the canvas. Dark menacing blacks, grays and maroons gather around the protuberating plunger. I began to worry that shtick was going to mar the first time I was truly enjoying and appreciating performance art. I tried to take comfort in the understated way he plunged the plunger; it wasn’t for show, it was deliberate and somehow functional.

Just as it was beginning to bother me, the band leaves Detroit for Chi-town. Up the tempo, up the snare, and Neal is bringing on the blues - cool midnight blue blows up the canvas from the right - looking like a mildly frenzied Picasso, he wipes his brush on his robed hip, using his elbow to blend the blues. Before the downbeat the plunger is off and Neal is slapping colors as sharply as the snare slaps the bass line.

The painting has taken shape: Neal is showing us the music in color, line and texture. It’s Bohemian at its’ best because the talent is authentic, trained and innate.

We are traveling again, somewhere here on the West Coast but with an East Coast accent. The music is new, original and now belongs souly to the two young men on stage. This ain’t no flat-land jazz, this ain’t no acid-jazz, this is the early jazz of the new millennium and Neal’s canvas is bright with green, purple, and give-it-to-me-orange.

Neal strips away some tape placed earlier but he doesn’t discard it, he wears the tape like soldiers wear badges, with honor in the moment. The lines created by the tape add clarity and layered dimensions synonymous with the music we are hearing. The painting is alive and seems to exhale the energy of the music we just heard - and with a slight gasp, the audience suddenly realizes that we just listened to that painting happen. Neal has managed to go between the senses of sight and sound and express it for our enjoyment. see there
webpage: www.barbosathon.com


Michelle O’Kane
okanme@cs.com

Copyright© by Michelle O'Kane
Studios of Neal Barbosa

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