Claire Barr - MA Painting
One for sorrow
Working with oils, Barr’s practice explores nature, British folklore and cultural/personal memories. Currently, her work has been directed towards the folklore of birds and the way that they have been represented throughout art history- examining what they are able to teach us, when mirrored to human experience. While her work is predominately influence by lore, mostly the superstitions towards magpies and crows, this body of work has also become about the simplicity of merging two worlds and exploring how they interact, shedding light on the shortcomings, as well as the amiability, of humanity.
The work consistently investigates the act of storytelling and plays around with different ways in which painting can sew together a narrative. Growing up in the Suffolk countryside, Barr has never been shy of rural landscape which has heavily inspired her painting practice, through her work she explores colour pallets that echo the land she grew up exploring, with dawn and dusk becoming sacred times of the day - represented with her deep reds and pinks that mimic the folk poem, “Red sky at night”.
