About Barry

Barry Watkin was born in 1933 and educated at Sevenoaks School. After training at Bromley College of Art he pursued a career as a Commercial Artist and later as Art Editor for a major publishing house. In 1988 he moved to Somerset to concentrate more fully on his painting. During the summer he and his wife ran successful painting courses from their C15 farmhouse in Stogumber. In 2002 Barry felt it was time to wind down the courses and to concentrate on developing his own work. He and his wife have now moved to Crowcombe, a small village in the lee of the Quantocks, where he now concentrates on commissions and exhibition work

An oil painter for many years, Barry now works mainly in pastel. Preferring the challenge of direct painting, he frequently visits the remote areas of Exmoor and the Quantock Hills, which have been the inspiration for much of his work. His love of the countryside is reflected in his rendering of light and mood over a wide range of subject matter including village scenes, seascapes, animals and open moor land.

Barry has exhibited with most of the London Societies including the RBA, ROI and Pastel Society. He travels widely in this country and abroad, demonstrating and promoting the pastel medium. In 1993 he was invited to lecture in Sydney, Australia, and to tutor courses in New South Wales, Australia and more recently in South Africa, Tuscany and Majorca.

Barry has made four instructional art videos for APV films. All have been highly acclaimed for their visual impact and presentation and two have been shown on TV.

Over the years Barry has held a number of one-man and group exhibitions. His first book 'Exploring Pastel with Barry Watkin' was published by Batsford in 1996 and is now in its second edition. He has written a number of articles for leading art magazines.

A number of his paintings have been reproduced as greetings cards and limited edition prints and one of his flower paintings was reproduced in the Contemporary Arts Calendar.

In March 2000 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.