About
Somerset based artist, Rebecca Barnard, was born in 1961 and has roots in agriculture and arable farming.
After early adult years living, working and painting in both Europe and Australia, she returned to the Heatherley School of Fine Art where she focussed on painting and mxed media. She is an RWA network member.
Rebecca has, for many years, been exhibiting widely and her work is now in private collections throughout the UK and internationally, including USA, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Egypt.
The physical process of making an image is as important to her as the emotion evoked by the outcome, and the progression of each project will depend on mood, energy and available materials. Rooted in the land, each piece has its own palette and story. Most of the works are completed in the studio, with its facilities; a hob to melt wax for encaustic, running water, mountains of gathered objects and materials, allowing the the work to evolve and form over time. The West Country and Pembrokeshire are often centres of inspiration, but the visual world provides motivation to make marks wherever she travels.
“My work comes from an organic place. The earthy landscape combined with the elements from which it is made are what compels me to create. To feel the texture and structure of a weathered object, or see the effects of the forces of our natural world at work, is like hearing a siren call to recreate it using my hands, paint, the materials around me. To me, these things are thrilling and when combined with atmosphere, shape and the instinct to make; the whole is irresistible."
Rebecca Barnard lives and works in Somerset and, alongside her own practice, is Co-Director of Heritage Courtyard Gallery and Studios in the centre of Wells, a unique venture which provides a quality platform for creative practice within a supportive and stimulating environment as well as being a hub for all the community to enjoy a variety of contemporary art by some of the West Country’s finest artists, and join regular creative workshops throughout the year.