To say Norton Barnhill is a local artist would be true but misleading.

Yes, he was born and raised in Winston-Salem, and, yes, he lives and paints here now. What happened between those two points is such a sweeping tale it threatens to overshadow his art-making — the heart and soul of his current career. There is, however, a line connecting his expansive life: Norton Barnhill has a strong sense of vision.

Barnhill recalls having visions at the age of 10. He saw paintings in his mind but he didn’t tell anyone. It was, he says, “a secret” he kept to himself for a long time — about 30 years. The athletic boy, who grew to be six-foot-six, did, however, share the other vision that preoccupied him — namely, to be a basketball star. “Understand, I didn’t dream of being a basketball player,” Barnhill emphasizes. “I dreamed of being a basketball star.”

Long story short, he attended Washington State University on a scholarship and played college ball for a few years before the Seattle SuperSonics drafted him. After a short stint in the NBA, he headed to Cordoba, Argentina, where he played on a club team for nearly a decade.

During those years on the road, Barnhill constantly visited museums and galleries, always doodled, never traveled without pencil and paper in hand. “But I wasn’t ready to paint then,” he says. “I knew that once I started painting, I wouldn’t stop.”

In 2001 the doors finally opened for him to pursue painting. “It’s time-consuming,” he says with not a trace of complaint. “You have to wash everything that’s in your mind out and get to your visions.”

Barnhill creates abstract paintings that are lyrical studies in color and texture. In the past year, he’s exhibited at DADA Gallery, donated work to Washington State University’s collection, and also sold a piece called The Mixing Floor: 1924, included in the Hanes Brand art show.

Barnhill’s acrylic paintings divide stylistically between minimal geometrical color studies, orderly shapes arranged on canvas, and rhythmic explosions of swirling colors that push and pull, collide and merge. In Color Meltdown, for example, ribbons of teal and white, black and cream move in various depths across the canvas.

“I call it my masterpiece, though I’d never call myself a master,” Barnhill says, smiling. “This painting just works together; the colors fused.” His explanation contains a detectable satisfaction, which is surely due in part to the fact it took him four years to complete the painting.

The application of paint and the layering of surface texture are key concerns. To see his paintings triggers a desire to touch them, to feel the way the paints thickens and transforms into woven fabrics of color. “I’m always going for an effect. I’ll dab and dip and hit and paint with a stick,” he says. “Whatever I think is going to give it a good effect, I use it. Right now I’m working with pine needles.”

Barnhill strives to create paintings that offer a pleasing escape, and in this way he sees a bond between basketball and art — both are forms of entertainment. But that’s where the similarities stop. Basketball is all about competition, he says, and in art, it’s all about personal passion.

“I want my paintings to give you peace and calm you down,” says the artist, who never signs his pieces because his signature would “take away” from the painting itself. In Sunset in the West, a mood of meditative beauty sweeps over the abstract landscape. That piece is based loosely on hot summer days when heat steams off the streets and sidewalks. He didn’t start off with the idea of summer heat, but as the paints merged and moved, it triggered that visual memory.

As an artist, Barnhill works intuitively. He learns by doing, follows the lead of the work itself, paints to find out rather than to show or describe. “The paintings have a life of their own,” he explains. “When the colors start blending in, it just paints itself. I’m just the applicator.”

When did you realize you were going to live a creative life?

At 10 years old. I had visions of color. I also liked sculpture.

Where do you find your inspiration?

Everywhere. From whatever you see, from God.

What do you do to overcome a creative block?

Stop painting. Go out in the yard. Sometimes you need to stop and then go back to it.

What do you think of failure?

The measure of a man is how he picks himself up. If you’re doing what you love, you are not a failure.

What quality do you most admire in other artists?

How they put colors together. How they paint. I always went to galleries and museums in every city I went to while I was playing ball.

What artist do you admire?

Ada Gugay from Argentina.

What would surprise people to find out about you?

That I love God with all my heart, and all my might.

For more information about Norton Barnhill or to view additional paintings, go to nortonbarnhill.com.