Known primarily for her picturesque scenes of the San Pedro waterfront, the Mexican quarter of Los Angeles, and San Francisco’s Chinatown, Loren Roberta Barton studied with William L. Judson (1842-1928) at the University of Southern California and with Rex Slinkard (1887-1918) at the Art Students League of Los Angeles. In 1920 she had her first solo exhibition at the Los Angeles Museum and later in the decade began winning awards throughout the country. At that time she was the only Los Angeles member of the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors. Until 1930 Barton was primarily involved with printmaking, although she had first experimented with oil painting around 1915 and with watercolor in 1920.

Throughout her career she painted genre scenes, landscapes, figure studies, and occasionally portraits. From 1929 until the mid-1930s Barton lived in Europe, spending much of her time in Italy, where she married Perez Babcock in 1930. During this period she received commissions to illustrate books from New York publishers. After her return to Los Angeles she exhibited regularly in the California Water Color Society annuals and in 1944 began a sevenyear association with Chouinard Art Institute, where she taught watercolor painting. She remained in Southern California for the rest of her life, marrying Russell Miller in 1951, and continued to paint and make prints.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Arthur Millier, "Our Artists in Person, no. 20: Loren Barton," Los Angeles Times, November 30, 1930, pt. 3, pp. 15, 18 § Who’s Who in American Art, 1947, s.v. "Barton, Loren" § Moure 1975, pp. 9, 30, with bibliography § Moure with Smith 1975, pp. 13-14, with bibliography § Laguna 1979, pp. 22-23, with bibliography.