Barbara Sala was born in 1937 and grew up in the Bavarian Alps. She left home to learn English and French. She became a secretary and found employment with the united Nations in the Congo. There she met her husband, gave birth to her son and daughter and escaped from the Congolese turmoils in 1967. After two more assignments with the UN in the Dominican Republic and Guyana, the family emigrated to Canada, Montreal in 1974. Here she worked as a real estate agent while raising her children. After a mid-life crisis in the late 70s she started painting and never stopped doing so. Barbara Sala belongs to the visionary types of naive (primitive) painters, who tell themselves fairy tales on canvas. Essentially self-taught, she fills her canvases with people and animals together with magical and mystical symbols. Her brightly coloured works aim to evoke a time of innocence and childlike wonder. Since 1985 she has participated in many group and solo exhibitions in Canada and abroad.