A. E. Barnes (Born 1963) American, Signed and Numbered Still Life Lithograph. Depicts a shell, apple, and model boat grouped together. Signed in thick pen bottom right. Numbered in Roman numerals CXVIII/CCXCV (118/295) in thinner pen bottom left. 

Overall Size: 18 x 20 in. 

Sight Size: 15 1/2 x 17 1/2 in. 

A. E. Barnes was born in Daytona Beach, Florida in 1963. Her father was a mathematician and her mother was an artist, and they had moved to Florida to run an art gallery, where Barnes was exposed to many different artists and styles throughout her childhood. Despite this, she was never interested in painting or drawing when she was little, intending instead to focus on astronomy and, later, interior design. At the University of West Florida she studied Philosophy and Comparative Religion, but went through numerous jobs afterwards without finding anything that captured her attention for long, taking continuing education courses in anthropology while reading about mythology and world mysticism. In 1989 she was visiting the family cabin in North Carolina when she decided to try her hand at painting a portrait of her mother, and finally discovered her calling. Lacking a canvas, she painted on a piece of wood board she came across, and it became her preferred medium. Within a week she had painted over twenty still lifes, interior scenes of her own house and garden, and landscapes from her historic neighborhood. Self-taught with a love of the Fauves, she first gained acclaim when she was accepted to the Piedmont Art Festival in Atlanta, followed by shows in Miami, Key West, Dallas, Houston, and Washington, D.C. Since the early 2000s she has been painting on commission for private homes and corporate headquarters, and continues to focus on oils and acrylics in countless subjects.