Philla Barkhorn was born in 1962 and grew up with a love of drawing. Her grandfather, Peter Helck (peterhelck.com), was a renowned illustrator. An interested and capable artist as a teenager, Philla continued to study and produce art while she and her husband raised three children. Once her youngest child started school full-time in 2006 she was able to invest more extensively in serious and intense study of portraiture. Philla is very grateful to have studied with some of New Jersey’s finest portrait artists, such as Rhoda Yanow, Alex Piccirillo, and Enrique Flores-Galbis, among others.
When she was diagnosed with a curable form of breast cancer in 2006, Philla discovered she wanted to paint the beautiful faces of the women in her support group. Thus began her series on “Women Whose Lives Have Been Touched by Cancer”. Demand for her work grew out of this project, scheduled to be shown at:
New Jersey Center for Visual Arts, Summit. student show, April 17 – May 28Chatham Art League, Chatham Municipal Building, Chatahm, March 19 – June 2
Ms. Barkhorn holds a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology from Douglass College, and a Master's Degree in Social Work from Hunter College.
Ms. Barkhorn is also part of an En Plein Air painting and sketching group. For more information on this group, please click here.
