LANDMARKS 2018

Richard Barrett Solo Exhibition

www.gallerytop.co.uk

11 August – 7 September 2018

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Richard Barrett Solo Exhibition

11 August – 7 September 2018

Beginings…

The paintings of Richard Barrett in his solo exhibition Saturday 11 August toFriday 7 September 2018 Welcome to gallerytop, a contemporary art gallery with an outstanding reputation for contemporary British art based in Rowsley, in the Derbyshire Peak District, Gallerytop curates around eight exhibitions throughout the year together with a permanent range of paintings, limited edition prints, sculpture, ceramics, glass and jewellery by some of the finest artists working in the UK today.

To see all the paintings with details of prices and sizes, please visit

www.gallerytop.co.uk gallerytop offers the Arts Council Own Art scheme, which encourages the purchase and collection of contemporary art through an interest-free loan scheme of up to £2,500

Richard Barrett is originally from Wales and left to attend Sheffield University to study Ecology. Afterwards he spent time in London as a teacher but quickly decided that his future lay in his interest in art. His father had been a keen amateur artist and encouraged Richard as a child, laying down the foundation for art as a valuable and important part of life. Richard was employed as an art director at a major publishing company where he created artwork and also commissioned and edited the work of other artists. He was very successful in the role and it was this period of time, which honed his ability as an effective visual communicator, with a high level of technical skill and an understanding of client requirements. However, the commercial demands impacted on his own creativity and he decided he needed to be more focused on his own internal vision. After eight years, Richard returned to live in Sheffield on the edge of the Derbyshire Peak District. After a period of transition between commercial art and his own painting, he committed to painting full time.

It was his study of ecology that first connected Richard to the raw beauty of the Derbyshire Peak District and influenced the way he saw the landscape. Richard’s degree afforded him an understanding of the immense history, evolution and structure of landscape. He saw the Peak District through eyes that understood the 360 million year relationship between a warm shallow sea and the now iconic White Peak. He understood the way gritstone formed the Dark Peak and his imagination was kindled by the dramatic weather and the way it was formed by, and related to, the ancient landscape. This dynamic weather system gave a sense of an environment that is a living, breathing entity – its biodiversity fundamentally dependent on elemental nature “As children, I think we are all aware instinctively of this basic truth, but tend to lose touch with the land as we get caught up in the grind of modern life”

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Richard Barrett Solo Exhibition

11 August – 7 September 2018

Inspirations…

Kyffin Williams

‘I knew Kyffin’s work long before I knew his name. As a child growing up in Cardiff, many wet Saturday mornings would be spent walking around the Cardiff National Museum and this is where I first came across his paintings.

There was something about the darkness and drama of his work that I found exciting. I love the thick visceral textures and slate grey colours of his brooding seascapes and mountain vistas. I feel he captures the soul of Wales, it’s solitude and it’s strength.’

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Joan Eardley

‘My deep admiration of Joans Eardley's work is centered mainly on the paintings she produced while she lived in the coastal village of Catterline.

Many of her seascapes and landscapes from this period have a physically compelling quality, not just in their sheer scale but also by the way they pull you in. There's a breathtaking spontaneity and freeness in her palette and brushstrokes during this period that never fails to excite and inspire me’

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Richard Barrett Solo Exhibition

11 August – 7 September 2018

The paintings…

‘Time spent walking the land, observing, recording and sketching provide the starting point for my work... ‘

Richards’s paintings have unique essential features, which combine to produce his land and cloudscapes - sometimes violently dramatic, sometimes calm and ethereal. There is a suggestion in the work as a whole of a confident knowledge and skillfulness together with a more tentative, intuitive searching…

A significant aspect of Richard Barrett’s work is his understanding of landscape: the land in his paintings is almost always gestural, as if it’s known and understood, it’s essential nature always changing, but fundamentally grasped. The skies in contrast, are usually huge, often billowing, an element to be grappled with and almost always the active element of the painting.

The skies are the rapidly changing ethereal worlds, seeming to transform the landscape they are created by and seeming to breath life back into the land.

It’s as if the land is immutable, a crucible for the alchemy of the skies.

Another important component of Richard Barrett’s successful paintings is his technical skill. This has been honed by many years as a commercial artist, where skill and precision made him a highly competent exponent of visual language. His paintings are loose, responsive and connected to memory, emotion and inner vision. However, in each painting the underlying formal elements are apparent - of structure, composition and competent draughtsmanship

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Richard Barrett Solo Exhibition

11 August – 7 September 2018

The primary element of Richards’s paintings is his creative vision, an emotional intelligence and memory, which is more about and inner landscape than the external one. His paintings have a semi-abstract quality, which appears to portray a sense of place, but just as effectively suggest other worldliness. They are responsive to the landscape but don’t overtly attempt to depict a location: not so much a sense of place as a sense of the spirit of the place. To achieve this sense of memory, Richards working conditions need to engender a creative resonance and he uses music to achieve this. He’s particular about the kind of music which contributes to the sweeping vistas he’s trying to evoke – such as Anna Von Hausswolf’s dark atmospherics.

Time spent walking the land, observing, recording and sketching provide the starting point for Richard's work. The quality of light is a constant theme and it’s possible to see why Constable’s oil sketches of clouds had such an influence. However, while Richards’s paintings have the freshness and vitality so admired in Constable, he doesn’t always use his source material for his final works. Back in the studio as the creative process of painting begins, an intuitive approach comes into play. The initial sketch could be the trigger for the painting, but it could as easily be a memory, a piece of music, an inarticulate, insubstantial feeling… Instinct and memories then guide the direction of the piece so that the finished painting becomes an expression of an inner landscape, half remembered, half felt…

Richard says of his paintings: ‘I've always watched the skies, inspired by the quality of light and the drama of the weather it brings and this has been the major influence behind much of my painting. For me, it's the changing dynamics of weather and light on the land that touches the emotions and compels me to paint. In many ways, the sky gives the land its breath.

The landscapes that evolve have an allusive abstracted quality. The movement of the wind and the rain as well as the drama of shifting light on the land provide magical, fleeting moments in a Derbyshire landscape.

They invite the viewer in, to find their own interpretation, their own personal story.

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Richard Barrett Solo Exhibition

Catching the Light, White Edge 20cm x 40cm £450

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11 August – 7 September 2018

River Study, Dovedale 45cm x 35cm £575

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Richard Barrett Solo Exhibition

11 August – 7 September 2018

Bright Clouds, Burbage 80cm x 80cm £1250

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Richard Barrett Solo Exhibition

11 August – 7 September 2018

Lime Meadow 24cm x 18cm £295

Burst of Light, Stanage 50cm x 70cm £895 Catching the Light, White Edge 20cm x 40cm

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£450

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Richard Barrett Solo Exhibition

11 August – 7 September 2018

…a confident knowledge and skillfulness together with a more tentative, intuitive searching…

Clouds and Gentle Light, Hope 100cm x 100cm £1,750

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Richard Barrett Solo Exhibition

11 August – 7 September 2018

The landscapes that evolve have an allusive abstracted quality….

Clouds Race, Hope Valley Light 60cm x 60cm £895

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Richard Barrett Solo Exhibition

11 August – 7 September 2018

Haze over the Heather 80cm x 100cm £1,500.00

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Richard Barrett Solo Exhibition

Heather below the Edge 20cm x 40cm £450

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11 August – 7 September 2018

Heather Season, Beeley 20cm x 40cm £450

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Richard Barrett Solo Exhibition

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11 August – 7 September 2018

Light after the Storm

100cm x 150cm £2,150

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Richard Barrett Solo Exhibition

11 August – 7 September 2018

Light on the Ridge 80cm x 100cm). £1,500

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Richard Barrett Solo Exhibition

11 August – 7 September 2018

Light on the Water, Dovedale 24cm x 18cm £295

Light Pours in, Edale 80cm x 80cm £1,250

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Richard Barrett Solo Exhibition

11 August – 7 September 2018

River Mist, Dovedale 40cm x 40cm

Beyond the Tor, Burbage 40cm x 40cm

£575

£575

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Richard Barrett Solo Exhibition

11 August – 7 September 2018

…they invite the viewer in, to find their own interpretation, their own personal story...

Seeded Grasses, Hathersage 90cm x 90cm £1500

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Richard Barrett Solo Exhibition

Shifting Light across the Fields 18 cm x 24cm £295

11 August – 7 September 2018

Shifting Skies over Hope (18 cmx 24cm £295

‘The movement of the wind and the rain as well as the drama of shifting light on the land provide magical, fleeting moments in a Derbyshire landscape…’

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Richard Barrett Solo Exhibition

11 August – 7 September 2018

Skies Billowing over the Moor 51cm x 51cm £695

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Richard Barrett Solo Exhibition

www.gallerytop.co.uk

11 August – 7 September 2018

Sunlight and showers, Distant Tors 100cm x 150cm £2,150

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Richard Barrett Solo Exhibition

Sweep of the Vale 18cm x 24cm

Warm Glow, Burbage 20cm x 40cm

£295

£450

11 August – 7 September 2018

It’s as if the land is immutable, a crucible for the alchemy of the skies…

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Richard Barrett Solo Exhibition

11 August – 7 September 2018

Warm Light on Burbage, Late Afternoon 60cm x 60cm £895

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Richard Barrett Solo Exhibition

www.gallerytop.co.uk

Giant Skies, Burbage

11 August – 7 September 2018

120cm x 80cm

£1750

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Richard Barrett Solo Exhibition

11 August – 7 September 2018

We are pleased to be able to offer our customers the Arts Council Own Art scheme. Own Art is a national initiative that makes buying contemporary art and craft affordable by letting you spread the cost of your purchase over 10 months with an interest free loan of up to ÂŁ2,500. The loan can go towards the payment of a piece of art either as full or part payment.

The gallery is open six days a week, from Tuesday until Saturday from 10.00 until 5.00 and on Sundays from 11.00 until 4.00.

For more information about the gallery, exhibitions and artists news, sign up to our mailing list at www.gallerytop.co.uk

Making an Own Art application is straightforward and takes about 10 minutes in the gallery.

If you would like more information about any of the paintings in this catalogue, please call us on 01629 735580 or e-mail us at info@gallerytop.co.uk

We can also arrange for you to make an Own Art application if you cannot get to the gallery in person with an e-signature application which you complete in your own home or office

All the paintings, with dimensions, price and additional images are on our website at www.gallerytop.co.uk

www.gallerytop.co.uk

gallerytop, Chatsworth Road, Rowsley, Matlock, DE4 2EH 01629 735580 info@gallerytop.co.uk

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