The signature on the painting is a simple "Barnabus".  The Artist Stanley (Paul Barnabus) Ditchfield has lived a hectic and complex life and in less that a decade has become a widely acclaimed and highly respected Florida painter.

     Barnabus was born and educated in England, served as an RAF combat pilot, and among other things spent sixteen years with Readers Digest in management, president of an advertising agency, outreach director for a worldwide religious organization, radio/TV broadcaster and communications consultant.

      He is essentially a self taught artist with some brief interludes of formal training and describes his work as somewhere between Realism and Impressionism.  What makes a Barnabus paining unique is that he paints almost exclusively with a palette knife and produces an amazing level of detail in the realistic areas of his work.  When reproduced as limited edition giclees on paper by Island International Artists the paintings have the quality of carefully worked pastels.

      Gallery sales, commissions from interior designers and collectors have contributed to his steadily growing popularity.

      For thirty five years of his hectic business and military life Barnabus lived in the Orient, South East Asia, South Pacific, Europe, Latin America, Mexico, Canada and throughout the United States.  Along the way he collected countless images of color and composition, culture and character that he told himself he would paint "one day".

      After he retired "one day" finally arrived, when during a visit to a daughter in West Texas she casually laid before him several dried up old tubes of paint and a handful of nearly hairless brushes, all of which she purchased for 50 cents at a near by garage sale.  "Don't you think," she said, "it's about time you started doing what you've always been destined to do with your life before you let any more of it slip away?"

      Through the years, since that day, Barnabus has painted for long hours with the same intensity and fervor he applied to his business life.  Few people have had such diverse experience, few have known so many parts of the world so intimately.  Now he is recreating those impressions for an ever growing following of art lovers.

      Except for the use of the camera, most of Barnabus' work is in the studio where a lifetime collection of images, observations and experiences live in the realm of imagery.

      He resides in Southwest Florida.