South African Natasha Barnes has mixed recipes as adeptly as she now mixes paints. The acclaimed artist, who always painted on the side, worked as a hotel chef, an editor for a prestigious cooking magazine, and also owned a cooking school. Her foray into abstractionism was ignited when she became impassioned by a Robert Motherwell painting at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. Barnes, whose internationally displayed work has been used by Ikea, Hallmark, ShopNBC, and “Extreme Makeover,” also creates jewelry infused with the style of her paintings.