Overview:
I studied Graphic Design at Manchester Polytechnic and graduated in 1983. Ever since I have worked as a graphic designer – the first 10 years as a senior designer and art director and then a move to France prompted the setting up on my own freelance design business.All the way through my career, I have continued to draw and paint in my spare time especially in the life room as I have always been drawn to portraiture gaining inspiration from the human form. After my move to France, I also took up the new challenge of teaching in two local art schools in the evenings. I have continued to teach drawing and painting ever since, and in 2016 I set up Drawing Room – my own Life Drawing school in Worthing.I am slowly winding down the graphic design part of my business to concentrate on my own studio practice and teaching.
My practice:
The backbone to my practice is drawing and it was only when I moved to France that I plunged into the world of oil paint and pastel. My work is made from direct observation – from life (when possible) and more recently from online life drawing or portrait sessions and photos. Necessity is the mother of all invention! I love to experiment with both the way I draw and mediums I use. Sometimes my work can be based very much of the academic style – searching out shapes and trying to work out the puzzle of the human form and what I am seeing and feeling. Other times my work is very expressive and playful and I try to marry up both the analytical and expressiveness to give a sense of the person and the sense of my reactions to the study of whoever is in front of me. The works shown here are all done from life – some in the life room and others from online sessions.
During the pandemic I took part every week in the Sky Portrait Artist of the week. My work was placed in the top 10 three times as well as winning third prize for my portrait of Noel Fielding. Last year I was approached by ITV to paint some portraits as a major prop for the series ‘A Long Call’ and I also provided numerous artworks for the studio scenery.I have taken part in the Worthing Portrait Artist of the year both in 2018 winning second prize, and in 2019 when I won third prize. I have yet to find enough courage to apply for Sky Portrait Artists of the Year!
I am in the process of creating a website but have a small gallery on my Drawing Room website here:
https://www.drawingroom.online/wendy-barratt-gallery
