$21.49

For Neal Barbosa, live music puts him in the mood to paint, and he does it onstage while bands perform at venues throughout the Bay Area and beyond, a practice known as live painting. One of the early pioneers of live painting, originally from Orange County, Barbosa was already a talented young artist when he moved to the North Bay at age 15 to live with his hippie uncle. He introduced me to all kinds of music that was going on around here, Barbosa says. He really wanted to be involved in that, but He didn’t play an instrument at the time, so He asked himself, What do I do? And He came up with the idea of live painting. Barbosa is not the first to paint live onstage, artists like Denny Dent have been painting along to live music since the 1960s, though Barbosa didn’t know about Dent when he started. Evolving organically over the last 15 years, Barbosa’s live painting was born out of a love for music and art, and his work synergizes both creative endeavors. I’ve worked with so many bands that like it, because it’s something new and something that gets the crowd going, Barbosa says. I’ve had musicians tell me that they can feel my energy, and vice versa, and it sparks them to do something a little more. Barbosa originally went to gigs without a clue as to what he would paint, but he's refined the process in the last decade and a half. These days, he’ll sketch out several rough ideas before the set so the crowd can watch a piece take shape in a timelier manner, usually over the course of three to five songs. Some pieces are portraits, some are abstract Barbosa says it all depends on what energy he taps into once he hears the music. Barbosa has painted onstage with renowned artists like Les Claypool, Larry Carlton, Chris Poland, Kofi Baker, the Wailers, The New Mastersounds, Eric Lindell and others. Neal Is also a regular at gigs with popular local bands like the Pulsators, Safety orange, Dry Heat Band, T-Luke & the Tight Suits, Andy Frasco, the Miles Schon Band, and has painted at venues like the Mystic and the Phoenix in Petaluma, the Fillmore and the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, The Paramount theatre, The Empress Theatre and at events in Mexico, Boston, San Francisco, New York City, Hawaii, Finland, Costa Rica, And Paris.  See the next live art performance

From   the   beggining

Where   i  am    now

Drawing at age 9, and moving to felt tip pens at age 12, and then moving to airbrush at age 16, and acrylics at age 20.

Now taking on commissioned work in between shows, and competing in art battles and trying to fight the resistance to paint, and getting distracted by updating my social media and digital art using the wacom tablet, these days im trying to complete many unfinished works in the studio and work on marketing over 1,000 paintings all while trying to keep on painting. 

Leader   of   watching  paint  dry

welcome to my new art studio 

As i carry on i'm in the process of answering these questions: 

1. How is your personality reflected in your work?
2. Can you tell us about where we are right now?
3. Are there particular artists that have influenced you?
4. What do you think are some of the most inspiring things happening in art currently?
5. How do you overcome creative blocks?