Barry Scanlan - Art

In the midst of spring cleaning and throwing things out, I was able to finish this painting of Cowboy Bob and his horse, Bessie. I had done a version of this painting about ten years ago; I painted it on a door that was going to be thrown in a dumpster.

This version is on a gallery canvas, 24 x 48, using gels, pumice, and acrylics.

Acrylic, mixed with Kessler's whiskey. 48 x 24 gallery canvas painted on all edges.

8 x 10 framed under glass. Acrylics.

Party down in your very keen and cool Hazmat dance outfit! Watercolor on paper, 22 x 30

36 x 36, acrylics, pumice, gel, and inclusions on a gallery canvas.

36 x 36, acrylics, gel, pumice and inclusions on a gallery canvas.

A few thick colors, ashes and cinders.  An Alexander Calder lithograph, "Beastie", looks down on the table. 36 x 36 gallery canvas.

The canvas has a light coat of wood ashes. The paint I used is acrylic and oil pens. There is whiskey mixed with the black acrylic paint. 36 x 36 gallery canvas.

36 x 36 cinders and ashes, paint.

30 x 24 gallery canvas with house paints, acrylics, and cinders.

A tar-sands oil pipeline is under construction across northern Minnesota. The pipeline crosses through wetlands and lakes with seasonal wild rice harvests, as well other fragile habitat. There have been ongoing protests led by Winona LaDuke, Anishinabe peoples, climate change activists, and more, but to this point the powers-that-be are winning the battle. Acrylics and paint pens on watercolor paper, 30 x 22.

Powerful snarly heads cause illness and issues in the body. Helping hands assist the body, guided by stickmen with torches.

Existently astute faces, low in strength but great in numbers, swarm the snarly heads. Acrylic and paint pens on watercolor paper, 30 x 22.

Tube of silicone, gel, and acrylics. 48 x 36.

Watercolor on paper, 22 x 30.

No need for poop bags for these two happy dogs! The poop bag is included in the suit! Yay Hazmat! And safe from the smoke, chemical-poisoned air, and Covid! Watercolor on paper, 22 x 30.

Welcome to Planet Earth! Watercolor on paper, 22 x 30.

A family with large teeth and a decent dental plan. This is a continuation of the "Big Teeth Series" paintings. Two of the big teeth paintings are in a dental office in Michigan and another is in the bedroom of a successful actor/writer in Virginia.


40 x 30 gallery canvas. Acrylics, pumice, gel.

The proponents of the Polymet Mining Project and the Enbridge Pipeline claim that water quality will not be impacted by oil leaks into the ground waters, lakes, and rivers. It is already a fact the wild rice beds will be destroyed in the St. Louis River tributaries near Lake Superior and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. And as always, there is a loss of habitat and life for the fish, amphibians, and birds. 22 X 22 framed under plexiglass; acrylic on newspaper.

If you can't trust a multibillion dollar corporation to do the right thing, who can you trust? The alleged free market is freest to those who have the most money, and is not free at all to those with little or no money. Walmart, or British Petroleum, has virtually all the "freedom" to compete against local, privately owned businesses or environmental interests. With the banner of "prosperity" and "economic growth" corporations degrade farms, forests, ecosystems, rural towns, and watersheds. 22 X 22 framed under plexiglass; acrylic on newspaper. 

Corporate public relations departments work exceedingly hard to make environmental degradation look good. 22 X 22 on newspaper, framed under plexiglass, done with acrylic paints and paint pens.
Framed under plexiglass.

Tony Hayward is the former CEO of British Petroleum, the corporation attached to the Deepwater Horizon Disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. He is now the board chairperson of Glencore, a Swiss corporation that Greenpeace named as one of the worst in the world (labor, environmental, and human rights violations). Glencore is financing the Polymet Mining Project in northern Minnesota, which is adjacent to Lake Superior and the Boundary Waters Wilderness.  22 X 22 on newspaper, framed under plexiglass, done with acrylic paints and paint pens.
Framed under plexiglass.

Large abstract, 30 X 48, acrylic and pumice. 2017.

Marc Chagall created a a few paintings depicting a poets, usually with bird images. This one is from Chagall's The Poet with Birds.


24 x 48, gallery canvas painted on all edges. Pumice, acrylics.

Highly textured with gels and silicone on a gallery canvas. All edges painted. 20 x 20.

Painted with Thompson's Whiskey, acrylics, and paint pens. 30 x 40.

An open milkweed pod bursting and displaying its seeds. 47 x 37 framed. Acrylic and gels.

36 X36, gallery canvas. Acrylics and pumice, very textured. 

A nod to Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., author of many great novels and short stories. Diptych, 48 X 24, acrylic and pumice. 2017.

Three people with issues, maybe. Who can say.
16 X 20, acrylics, fiber paste. March 2017.

We think we know the world
but sometimes when we are sitting idly on a swing
there are things going on around us
we will never understand.
And we shouldn't.
It is in another dimension
and language
not meant for us.

Girl on a Swing, 36 X 24 in a floating frame. Acrylics, gels, oil paint pens. 

When we argue with others, 
a little person inside our body argues too,
which can confuse as we argue,
which may cause us to say things we regret.
Meanwhile, an invisible arguer can appear behind us,
yelling very loudly,
making it hard to hear the person we are arguing with.
Sometimes the pets get involved in the arguing.

16 X 20, acrylics, framed.

It's an existential world. This painting is 20 X 16, acrylic, framed.

Dyptych painting, 20 X 20, acrylics, pumice, inclusions. 

24X36 acrylic. This painting is based on an actual story. Nobody died, but it was close.

22X28, acrylics, framed. 

Heavily textured gallery canvas with pumice and gel. 36 X 36, acrylics with a t-rex dressed in a Miro suit.

7.5X 9.5 acrylics. We don't see whales on farms as much as we use to.

30 X 40 acrylic and oil paints.

48 X 30 X 1.5 on a gallery canvas. Acrylics, gels. January 2016.

14 x 11, framed. Acrylics, oil paint sticks.