FOREWORD
For artist Bob Barker, Northern Light represents a lifetime of observations channelled into a collection more than a year in the making. The acclaimed painter, famed for his evocative representations of northern mill towns and his self-styled ‘Northern Impressionism’, takes us on a journey to the stone flags and cobbled streets of his youth, capturing the industrial footprint of such northern towns and cities. These tableaus serve as Bob’s visual memoirs, inspired by the childhood that shaped him and refined by eyes that have experienced life. “Light in the north transforms everything it touches…from the cobbled streets to the terraced house, mills and back alleyways…they have been bathed in this light for decades.” Artists throughout the centuries have marvelled at the light quality in place such as Venice, St Ives and the south of France; an assertion that Barker would not refute. He simply believes that the light in the north of England equals these well-trodden locations of artistic outpouring. Northern Light is Barker’s homage to his muse; the spectrum of light from a breaking dawn to the luminosity of a bright, full moon, all intrinsic features found amongst his compositions. He maintains that the natural light provides him with settings as reassuringly familiar as they are individually striking. Through the eyes of the consummate artist, the light “is very changeable, intensely dramatic, frequently intoxicating
and always inspiring.” It may also reveal Barker’s insistence that a great deal more shines forth from towns dominated by an industrial legacy than the average observer might credit. Where others see dull brick, soot-blackened stone and polluted skies, his artistic sensibilities see light and colour. “When I paint it’s almost – at least through my eyes – as if this northern light pours from my brush onto the canvas.” Wielding a near monochrome palette that is alive with dark, intense shadows and pure white light, allows Barker to create an immense depth within each piece. However, it is not just the light that makes these pieces of artwork stand out, it is the poignancy of the memories it evokes, the nod to day to day living, and the stories that drive this collection. A Yorkshire man born and bred, nostalgia spurs him to paint the early years he remembers with such fondness. Viewed in its entirety, the Northern Light collection illustrates and preserves forever key life themes and values. In capturing these moments in time, Bob has produced some of his finest work to date; a combination of the experienced artist painting from the heart, and paying respect to the north that made him the man he is today. “The echoes of my past become my future painting s.”
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