Susan Barber - Paintings

3rd  – 28th August 2021

 

I've loved drawing and painting since I was a child. For over thirty years since I completed my Fine Art Degree, I maintained my interest by painting in my spare time. Since 2014, (when I was given early retirement), I have been so fortunate to be able to devote far more time to my artistic efforts. I find inspiration in visiting galleries and looking at the work of others, but most of all in the beauty of the natural world.

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My subject matter is quite varied, including still-life, landscape and figure compositions. Depending on the time of year, I enjoy working out of doors, working from direct observation of nature.  I supplement this with information taken from my own photographs, (I’ve usually got a camera somewhere close at hand!).  More often than not it is colour, light, pattern and texture combining, sometimes unexpectedly, catching the eye and setting the challenge to capture it in paint and other art materials.

  

2020 began so well for me- winning the 2020 Queen Street Art Gallery Open Competition was such a thrill and tremendous motivation. Then, less than a month later- the Covid 19 pandemic hit.

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The first lockdown in Spring 2020 was a strange and tremendously difficult time for so many. I was so very lucky to have my art to occupy me. The beautiful weather allowed me to sit in the garden and work from direct observation. I was also able to work pretty intensively on my other landscape and figure paintings. Very often I was motivated to paint compositions which depicted the places, activities etc. that we take for-granted in “normal” times but were denied to us under lockdown.