Have you ever had a dream so vivid and distinct that you wished you could capture it forever? Or even better – that you could share it? For Canadian artist Barbara Safran de Niverville, this isn’t just a wish—it’s the heart of her artistic practice.
Vieunite’s Cultural Director met with Barbara to discover how she translates feelings, memories, and dreams into paintings that anyone can see and enjoy. The answer lies in a unique process that blends mindful observation with bold, material experimentation, resulting in images that feel both real and ethereal.
The Rapture of Creation
For Barbara, making art is a state of being so completely absorbed that the world falls away. She first experienced this as a child, sitting painting in her uncle’s barnyard in rural Canada. She was so lost in her work that she didn’t feel a thing until she stood up and found her legs covered in mosquito bites. She was in “the zone”—a place of unaware creation she has returned to ever since.
From Vision to Canvas
That creative zone isn’t just found in the waking world. Sometimes, inspiration arrives in a dream. Barbara vividly remembers one where she saw a sunset illuminating raindrops on tree branches, turning them into “little tiny gems of water”. The dream filled her with such an intense “feeling of joy and peace” that she knew she had to capture it. This moment was a turning point, pushing her to create art that expresses a feeling rather than just a scene.
A Camera Without a Lens
To translate these dreamlike visions, Barbara uses an unusual tool: a modern digital camera with no lens. In its place, she fits a body cap with a tiny, needle-sized hole. This “pinhole” technique creates a soft, ethereal image where everything is equally out of focus. “I like the pinhole camera because it cuts out the minutia that I could get too involved with,” she explains. It’s the perfect method for an artist more interested in capturing a mood than creating a perfect replica of the world.
A Rebellion Against Rushing
Ultimately, Barbara’s art is a quiet rebellion against a world in a hurry. She speaks of watching people in national parks “rushing up through the trails and missing all the wildflowers” just to get to a viewpoint. Her paintings ask us to be the person who stops, who notices, and who finds beauty in the journey. They are a powerful reminder of her advice to all aspiring artists: “keep looking and keep learning and keep experimenting”.
Ready to see for yourself?
You can explore Barbara’s incredible, dreamlike work right now in the Vieunite app. To hear more about her inspirations and techniques, watch the full interview with our Cultural Director below.
Vieunite’s mission is to provide a new online art community that combines an alternative platform for artists to sell their work digitally with an innovate digital canvas that has texture accurate display technology. We want to bring art into everyone’s lives in a unique way to give people the chance to creatively express themselves.