Artist & Media

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Barrie Leigh was born and raised in the heart of the English Lake District. Views of mountains like Great Gable, Scafell and the crags of Seat Allen, and their nearby rivers and lakes, gave him a love of landscapes. The colors and patterns of the mountain scenery changed moods as the seasons went by.

Barrie lived only a couple of miles from the tallest mountain, by the deepest lake, with the smallest school, and the smallest church in England. The colorful flower beds in nearby gardens and the distant fiery mountainsides of bracken instilled a love of vibrant color combinations.

Like many artists in America, Barrie started painting later in life. Like so many others, he has learned from the techniques and experience of many excellent art teachers and coaches.

His preferences lean towards the natural world around us. That scenery and its elements provide the combinations of colors and textures that influence his paintings. The media he uses are known for their ability to give intense colors, as well as soft subtleties, when needed.

Who makes a painter successful? Van Gogh, Cezanne, Monet, Renoir, Sargent, Degas, Turner all have something in common. Shockingly, to our modern sense of "education" they have no art degrees. It is you, who appreciate art that determine the value of any painter. When the subject, the style, or the message in a painting brings out a strong feeling or memory, you may want it for yourself: it's you who determines the value of a painter's work. So, contact us if you like his paintings.

As you look through these paintings, realize that each one of them has a message or a theme (what the painting "about"). Each painting has a focal point, or sometimes two, with natural curves and shapes that invite your eye into the scene. You travel with the artist on a short journey through color, shape and texture.

The galleries of images in this website show our paintings without any frames. Nearly all of Barrie's paintings are framed and matted to high professional standards. Here, we expect you to focus on the paintings rather than their frames.

Exhibition

As a named artist at the Artists' Emporium gallery in Havre de Grace, Barrie is assigned a permanent section for ongoing display of a selection of his current work. Visit Artist's Emporium for a diverse selection of fine artwork.

Barrie is a Member of Harford Artists' Assocition. He shows his work at occasional exhibitions in their Bel Air gallery and various community satellite exhibitions.

As an Artist Member of the Maryland Pastel Society, Barrie submits pieces for adjudication and inclusion in their regular juried exhibitions.

You can find more information about Barrie from his exhibits on the Baker Artist Portfolios.

In the Bel Air area?

Visit the Harford Artists' Gallery in the Armory Marketplace

Follow the brick walkway along the right side of the Armory to

37 N Main St #104, Bel Air, MD 21014

Hours 11 am to 6 pm Thursday, Friday, Saturday & Sunday

Phone 410 420-9499

PASTEL PAINTS

The color in paint comes from pigment that is added to a medium to make it liquid or thick or powdery, so that it can be applied to material like canvas or special card stock. Pastels use different kinds of medium to produce chaulky sticks, colorful pencils or powdery pans of paints. These different forms of pastel paints all work together, and can be layered and blended to provide dense, but infinitely varying, tones and shades.

In use for hundreds of years, pastels reached a pinnacle of popularity with the great impressionist painters in France. Since then, they have provided an attractive medium for artists who want vivid effects and striking colors in their paintings.

A pastel painting is a more hands-on experience for an artist than other kinds of painting. The paint is applied directly with the hands, more like a sculptor working directly in color. No brushes or knives separate the painter from the textured or sanded support material. The paint is applied directly from hand to paper. We use the finest kinds of treated or sanded card, to ensure the surface grabs and holds the many layers of paint.

See Our

Pastels Gallery

ACRYLIC PAINTS

The fragility of watercolors and the slow drying speed of oils each produce a distinctive look-and-feel in those types of paintings. Acrylics are a polymer (a plastic) liquified by an emulsion (a medium).

Acrylics hold color densely and can be modified using a wide range of mediums to create the transparency of watercolors, the subtle blendings of oils, or even a heavy texture, like a plaster wall. The acrylic paint's characteristics are controlled by the artist's selection of medium. This creates an opportunity for effects that cannot be created in other mediums.

We explore some 3-D effects in our acrylic paintings. The dappling and depth you see in our acrylic paintings are often the result of peaks and valleys in the paint's texture.

See Our

Acrylics Gallery