Barbara Harmon

Barbara Harmon

On February 8th, 2026, long-time Taos Artist Barbara Sayre Harmon passed along to "The Happy Painting Grounds," peacefully in her sleep. Born on August 8, 1927, in her final years, months and days, she retained her grace, sense of humor and empathy that were her lifelong trademark. She is preceded by her husband Cliff, also a notable Taos Artist, who passed in 2018. Her father was Fred Grayson Sayre, a famous California landscape painter who passed away in 1939. Her mother was Ruth Barker, who passed a couple of years later. Barbara was adopted by her Aunt Bertha Sayre and her husband, Navy Capt. Louis T. Young, who saw action at Pearl Harbor. Her other Sayre Aunts were Beulah, Helen and Viola. Viola was also a photographer and painter of miniature portraits and still life paintings, and taught young Barbara about art. On her mother's family side, the Barkers were well-established date farmers in the Indio, CA area. A family story is that they supplied date trees to help Egypt recover from a deadly tree blight. She is survived by her son Jonathan and grandson Colin Sayre Harmon of Taos, Jonathan's wife Julia, and Colin's half-siblings Laurel, Jessie, and Wm. Robert, their four children, and one grandchild. Her early life was spent in the California Coachella Valley and Glendale areas of Los Angeles, where her Aunts lived. From her father taking desert trips, sketching and painting in plein aire, Barbara gained an appreciation for nature and wild spaces. Attending a private school in Glendale, CA, she learned formal manners, dance, operatic voice, as well as daily assignments of writing poetry and composing musical tunes. While she had ambitions to be an opera singer, it was art that would become her lifelong career. Barbara met Cliff at The Bisttram School of Fine Arts in Los Angeles, and they were married in 1948 after following Bisttram to Taos to attend school here in the summers. They also spent time at Black Mountain College in Asheville, NC, where Cliff attended formal art classes during the 1949-50 winter semester, and Barbara learned various artistic endeavors like etching from Lawton Parker in 1951, and, in particular, book binding, which became a paying job. Cliff exhibited at the La Fonda Gallery on Taos Plaza, and Barbara was an attendant there. She was surrounded by the work of the Taos Founders and was influenced by them. Through Barbara's close friend and Bisttram student Duane Van Vechten and her husband, Ed Lineberry, they acquired a one-acre plot of vacant land in 1949 that overlooks the Leon Gaspard house, onto which Cliff built a one-room house. Jonathan was born to them in 1951 in Embudo. They had chickens for eggs, a goat for milk, a dog who nibbled a bite of each cookie in a batch as they cooled, and an old black pickup truck named Lucifer. Barbara was published in El Crepúsculo (predecessor to the Taos News) on April 23rd, 1953, in an article titled "Bookbinding Is Her Specialty." Due to financial reasons, she and Cliff went back to CA to both Santa Monica and later Glendale, where Cliff made detailed wind test models for various aircraft companies, such as Douglas, ESCO, and Rocketdyne. Between Cliff's contract jobs, they returned to Taos in the summers. At some point, a second room was added, the kitchen. Cliff and Barbara collaborated in making miniature props for friend Don Peters for the movie "The Great Race." The car they made can be seen rolling down a long table in the early part of the movie. Barbara did the upholstery using tiny brass tacks. Another movie project was little motor-driven furry cute aliens with long eye stalks, she called "Purple Gerpils." Cliff did the mechanics, Barbara the fur, etc. Barbara worked on honing her watercolor skills, including works that were exhibited at a retrospective show at the E. L. Blumenschein Home and Museum in late 2012. In the summer of 1962, Viola decided to sell the Glendale house and move to Oregon to be with her sister. Viola gave Cliff and Barbara a third of the proceeds. This was the financial stake they needed to move back to Taos, this time to stay. They used the funds to build buildings and rooms, including the "press room," into which in 1963 they installed a giant Chandler & Price letterpress purchased from El Crepúsculo. Barbara had her first one-person show at the Stables Gallery in October 1967 and continued showing there for many years in various shows. She and Cliff were both active members of the Stables Gallery for decades. Also in that year, her first letterpress book, "Tabbigail's Garden," launched with Taos News articles and advertisements. Later, using a rented Multilith offset press came "The Little People's Counting Book" and "This Little Pixie," then the letterpress again for "Monday's Mouse." She worked with the Baker Company print division as well. Barbara's first solo retail outlet in Taos was The Children's Gallery as a suite at 103A Bent Street, right across from the Historic Taos Inn in 1963. It was also known as Galleria Los Niños. A few years later, Cliff built a gallery for both of them, The Torreon Gallery at 903 Paseo Del Pueblo Norte in Placitas, the pitched cedar shake roof place, which Barbara referred to as her "Mother Goose" house. That property was later sold, and Barbara reestablished The Children's Gallery in the gazebo in Wengert Patio – a block east of Taos Plaza on Kit Carson Road, adjoining other galleries in suites and Ricardo's Restaurant. After many years, they decided to simplify their lives and exhibit primarily at their home studios. Additionally, she exhibited in many venues such as the Preusser Gallery in Taos, the Blair Galleries Ltd. in Santa Fe, etc. She also participated in the Autumn Art Festival – Taos Invites Taos for many years. As a logical extension to her lithographic printing, she also explored fine art Giclée printing with Century Editions in Costa Mesa, CA. Once she had a booth at the LA Convention Center for an Art trade show. At one point, in the mid '70's, Barbara spent a whole month in Santa Fe doing a full long-wall fresco mural at a shop a block or two NE from the Plaza. Barbara loved to travel. She took many trips to Mexico, and long trips to Yugoslavia, Morocco, Spain and Turkey. Sometimes she went with Cliff, alone, or with a group of close friends who specialized in Oriental dance, who traveled as a group to Egypt. Barbara also had an extensive group of clients in Texas. Some had been tourists and saw her work here. Others were clients of The Baker Gallery of Fine Art in Lubbock, TX, from 1963 – 1997 and helped with publishing her book "Thimbly Hill" in 1980. A few of the clients developed multi-generational traditions of acquiring a Barbara Harmon work to commemorate the birth of children, grand- and great-grandchildren. Her other major book publication was "The Tumpfee Wood Acorn Book" in 1977, detailed in a magazine article in The Santa Fean in 1979. Barbara is listed in some annual editions of Marquis Who's Who of Art in America. Barbara is most famous for her fantasy world of "Wilderwish," a land of magical self-reflective inspiration, populated by all manner of fanciful characters of many species living together in harmony. They are sometimes visibly present in still-life and garden scenes, other times hidden, except in the viewers' imagination. She also loved producing fantasy, iridescent appearing bottles and vases. She was not limited to fantasy. Her more classically serious work were portraits and city scenes. The portraits are somewhat in the ethereal form of Nicolai Fechin, whose daughter Eya was a friend. The trips to the Mediterranean countries inspired elegant yet fanciful street scenes. Those were her very own style, but the composition is reminiscent of Leon Gaspard, whose house was then across a couple of alfalfa fields away. Barbara was featured in a one-person 65-year retrospective exhibition in September of 2012 through April of 2013 at the E. L. Blumenschein Home and Museum in Taos. Her books and prints were available there in the gift shop for many years. Her paintings and original graphics are in the permanent collection of the Harwood Museum of the University of New Mexico, the Taos Art Museum and Fechin House, Stanford University Library, Taos Public Library Children's room, as well as other museums and a great number of private collections, including Ernest Blumenschein, whose daughter Helen was a long-time close friend. The family of Barbara Sayre Harmon has entrusted the care of their loved one to the caring staff of DeVargas Funeral Home of Taos. (866)657-4019 www.devargastaos.com