Her paintings sometimes draw upon half-remembered images, imagined characters, and forgotten fragments of text.
Born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Barbara initially trained as an actor then studied Fine Art at Colchester Art School. She has spent many years touring with theatre companies both nationally and abroad, always taking painting materials with her and recording her travels in sketchbooks and on scavenged cardboard. She now lives in the Essex coastal town of Wivenhoe, a burgeoning artists enclave and paints from her garden studio there.
Perhaps it is because of her background that a sense of narrative pervades the paintings, albeit elusive. The evocative sense of untold stories depicted in a naïve style, coupled with her passion for colour, make her paintings immediately recognisable.
She depicts seascapes & landscapes, with figures emerging and disappearing from view, creating glimpses of fleeting moments. Her paintings sometimes draw upon half-remembered images from her travels and of family life, she sometimes introduces imagined characters, and forgotten fragments of text. Elements of memory and imagination are fused with the environment that surrounds her: the mud flats, water meadows, big skies and sea.
Most mornings she wakes early and goes out along the estuary where she lives, capturing the dawn light mirrored in the water and wet mud, sketching marshland birds and small fishing vessels in the early morning mist. Later she will develop the sketches into paintings sometimes introducing displaced figures from other eras.
Painting mostly in acrylics, occasional wax crayons, oil, gouache and acrylic ink, Barbara enjoys the textures of paint, physically wiping off, scraping and playing with the surface is all part of her creative process.
Memberships
She is an original member of the esteemed Contemporary British Painting group and participates regularly in group shows. She is also a founder member a of Wivenhoe Printworks Printmaking workshop and a Member of Colchester Art Society.