Barbara Rae
Paintings From Ireland
14 May - 13 June 2002
LONDON Main Gallery



                

            


After two exhibitions based on distant travels to South Africa and Arizona, this new exhibition finds Barbara Rae much closer to home - Ireland. She is spending two months in County Mayo, at the renowned Ballinglen Arts Foundation which allows international artists to experience working in rural Ireland. On going to press the new paintings are in progress but unseen by anyone except the artist!

Barbara's images are far removed from conventional representation of place and the subject matter constantly shifts. A principal theme in her work concerns the marks left on the landscape by those who work and live on it. In Scotland it was the peat banks, in Spain the vineyards, in Arizona the Anasazi Indian art etched into rock and cliff. Last September at Art First it was the life guard huts that line Malibu's Zuma Beach.

Given that fully descriptive landscape 'portraits' have never been Barbara's intention, it is evident that the images have become more abstracted, where space is flatter and the contrast of foreground to background is less clear. Her brilliant use of colour and the sweep of her brush provide form and mood, and by painting in this free and exhilarating manner, she produces images of great simplicity and strength.

What will it be about County Mayo that sets her mind free?


An illustrated catalogue accompanies the exhibition.

Barbara's exhibition at Art First New York runs 
from 16 September to 11 October 2002.