Meet the Artist

Barbara VanDyke Shuman is a third generation Northwesterner from Olympia. She graduated from Seattle University in 1965 with an art major, then spent two years teaching in Turkey with the Peace Corps. Her first pastel painting was exhibited in Izmir, Turkey. She returned to the Seattle area where she earned her Masters of Art degree with a major in textile art. Barbara has had a long career teaching English as a second Language, Art and History.
She is married to Jim Shuman and has two grown sons, Brandon and Jeremy,
and a daughter, Melissa. In 1986, the entire family spent a year in Shanghai China, and Jim and Barbara taught at Shanghai International Studies University. Barbara had taken a leave from teaching High School in Bellevue, recognizing that "if not now, when?" ...the time to devote herself to art is at hand. She exhibits regularly at State of the Arts Gallery in Olympia, Lakeshore Gallery in Kirkland, Earthenworks Gallery in LaConner and Port Townsend, and Up Front Gallery in Issaquah. All of her work reflects her passion for history, world travel, and the natural world.