Biography

Kym Barrett is an Australian painter living and working in a SE Queensland bushland. She has had 18 solo exhibitions and her work is contained in public and private collections in Australia and internationally.

She primarily paints with oils and cold wax on board, making abstract paintings that aim to evoke aspects of the landscape imbued with depth and mystery, sometimes called ‘internal landscapes’.

Kym graduated in Fine Arts (painting and drawing) from Brisbane College of Art in 1975.

Artist Statement

I feel most alive when I’m entirely present with the process of painting and drawing. For me, the freedom and vitality of the gestural marks and layers in the early stages are so energising. I’m trying to build up a rich, complex surface that is subtle but substantial. Then comes the challenge of organising the chaos while leaving the life force intact, to create works that embody depth and mystery. I seem to be always searching for the balance of opposites – between activity and quiet, between things hidden and things exposed, between raw and ordered, surface and history.

My work is always tethered to the visible landscape. Especially when I am alone in a landscape, my perception seems to be on quiet alert…a walking meditation … and memories are implanted. My abstract vocabulary of colour, texture and mark expresses my connection to the place where I live as well as internal states of being. I hope that something familiar resonates with the viewer while leaving some questions to be answered.

My primary medium is oil paint mixed with cold wax medium on board and paper, but I also enjoy the immediacy of plein-air drawing using charcoal and water media, which I later tear and collage to create new compositions. These sometimes are starting points for the more developed paintings. My approach is organic – a ‘listening and following’ the painting- rather than working with a planned outcome. It’s a rhythm of building up and breaking down layers, a kind of archaeology.

I try to stop just before the painting is finished (a little raw and ambiguous) to all the viewer to perhaps complete the picture.

CV

View Kym Barrett’s CV

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