Hilary Barry
Location: Suffolk, Kessingland
The online art gallery of original art for sale in the UK
email: info@acquireart.co.uk
I’m a painter: I exhibit regularly and have work in museums and private collections. I completed my MA in Fine Art as a mature student at Middlesex University in 2006, and also have a degree in Education. In September 2016, I moved from London to Kessingland, a small beach village in Suffolk.
Over the last few months, during the Coronavirus lock-down, I’ve had a chance to think about my art practice and life, and what is important in the great scheme of things.
This compulsory time has made me slow down completely to a pace I have never experienced before. I’m still learning about how to live in this “new normal”, but I’m relishing the concept of “slow time” and living much more in the moment. I’m drawn now to simpler things, such as how the light falls on the garden at different times of the day. I’ve become very attached to my garden studio, where I can watch the weather change and light reflecting.
All my paintings tend to be about the inner and outer world, and my mind has focused on positive memories. As a consequence, it has gained bold, free use of colour, optimism and hope – which has surprised me, as I thought the dark and bleak images I produced at the beginning of Covid-19 would persist. Hopefully, in planning work for “Moving On”, an upcoming group exhibition to be held with Easterly Artists in June 2021, my palette will become still lighter and brighter.
My language is painting. There’s something primal about it. It's innate, the need to make marks. That's why, when you're a child, you scribble. The mark making has become more spontaneous and I’m able to return to a painting and not completely overpaint, but record painting time, with layers of drawing and marks. The contradiction of a painting on top of a painting replicates the slippage we have between the real world and the visual world. It's about the memory of the pictures I have, at my disposal: millions of memories of sights, sounds and experiences on which to concentrate and paint.
The most difficult issue will be not to focus too consciously, but to let things just evolve. This time I must just let the paint dictate – another phrase I once used which, at the time, was quite meaningless, but which now I’m beginning to understand.
Over the last few months, during the Coronavirus lock-down, I’ve had a chance to think about my art practice and life, and what is important in the great scheme of things.
This compulsory time has made me slow down completely to a pace I have never experienced before. I’m still learning about how to live in this “new normal”, but I’m relishing the concept of “slow time” and living much more in the moment. I’m drawn now to simpler things, such as how the light falls on the garden at different times of the day. I’ve become very attached to my garden studio, where I can watch the weather change and light reflecting.
All my paintings tend to be about the inner and outer world, and my mind has focused on positive memories. As a consequence, it has gained bold, free use of colour, optimism and hope – which has surprised me, as I thought the dark and bleak images I produced at the beginning of Covid-19 would persist. Hopefully, in planning work for “Moving On”, an upcoming group exhibition to be held with Easterly Artists in June 2021, my palette will become still lighter and brighter.
My language is painting. There’s something primal about it. It's innate, the need to make marks. That's why, when you're a child, you scribble. The mark making has become more spontaneous and I’m able to return to a painting and not completely overpaint, but record painting time, with layers of drawing and marks. The contradiction of a painting on top of a painting replicates the slippage we have between the real world and the visual world. It's about the memory of the pictures I have, at my disposal: millions of memories of sights, sounds and experiences on which to concentrate and paint.
The most difficult issue will be not to focus too consciously, but to let things just evolve. This time I must just let the paint dictate – another phrase I once used which, at the time, was quite meaningless, but which now I’m beginning to understand.
8-19 June 2021: "Moving On" (Group exhibition with Easterly Artists).
Anteros Arts Foundation
11-15 Fye Bridge Street
Norwich NR3 1LJ
Tel: 01603 766129
Open Tuesday-Saturday, 9.30am-5pm
Anteros Arts Foundation
11-15 Fye Bridge Street
Norwich NR3 1LJ
Tel: 01603 766129
Open Tuesday-Saturday, 9.30am-5pm