Barry began his career as a designer and illustrator. His illustrations have appeared in books published by HarperCollins, Princeton University Press, Cornell University (Comstock) and the American Birding Association. Barry is a member of London’s Society of Wildlife Artists, and in 2014, he was named Master Artist at the international BIRDS IN ART exhibition (Wausau, Wisconsin) – an award which recognizes artists who have shown “outstanding achievement in using bird imagery in their artwork”. Previous recipients of the award include Roger Tory Peterson and Robert Bateman. Barry has illustrated many publications for the Massachusetts Audubon Society and his book FINDING SANCTUARY was published by Mass Audubon in 2020.
At the invitation of the Artists for Nature Foundation, Barry has traveled to Spain, England, Ireland, India, Peru and Israel, working alongside other wildlife artists to raise money for conservation of threatened habitats. In 2007, Barry was chosen to create the UK Habitat Conservation Stamp (the British counterpart to the US Federal Duck Stamp), and was the first American to be so honored.
In Barry’s own words:
As a young adult, I learned all I could about birds and studied bird identification, birdsong, taxonomy and bird behavior – and I spent many hours outdoors observing wild birds. After studying art at university, I worked as a commercial graphic designer and illustrator for a number of years, but birds were only temporarily put on the back burner. Over time, I brought my interest in birds in line with my art career by illustrating bird books and nature guides. Bird illustration (usually in gouache) is technically demanding, requiring a deep understanding of bird anatomy and structure. On these projects, I teamed up with professional ornithologists to assure that my bird illustrations were scientifically accurate.
My involvement with birds went through several stages as my career evolved, but I can pinpoint a major turning point in the late 1980s, when I discovered the work of European wildlife artists. I became intrigued with the European approach stressing direct observation and field sketching, and started a routine of regular outdoor drawing in a field sketchbook. It took considerable practice before I was able to record useful drawings of birds, but the effort was worth it – the sketchbooks transformed and deepened my connection to these creatures. They trained my eye for subtleties of shape, proportion and plumage, and helped me learn the qualities that defined the unique character of the various species. In my experience, nothing makes you pay more attention to a subject than drawing it from life.
Drawing outdoors eventually led to painting outdoors, requiring that I assemble a field kit suited to my needs and preferences. Because of the optics I need for observing birds, my field kit can be cumbersome, making it even more important to carry only what I need for painting.
Fieldwork demands that I work rapidly and loosely, since wild birds are almost always on the move, and this practice has carried over into my studio painting. Watercolor is a perfect medium for painting birds; watercolor’s spontaneity suits the vibrant, ephemeral quality of these elusive animals. In all of my bird paintings, I aim for a light touch, to retain that vital sense of life and movement. With my background in bird illustration, I need to fight a tendency to over-render, and I actively guard against this. Too many times, I’ve seen the life drain out of a bird painting with overworking.
Many of my paintings can be described as straight-forward bird portraits. Back in the studio, I pour over my field studies to find gestures and poses that can spark a painting. It’s all about capturing the distinctive personality of a particular species by finding just the right lines, shapes and proportions. In the studio, I can work larger, and spend more time on the design and concept of a painting. In a recent series of larger watercolors, I weave the birds into a strong background pattern, making connections of tone, color and shape between the birds and the background. I’m aiming for an active composition that will challenge and intrigue the viewer. Artist-in-Residence programs have become very popular in recent years, and offer people like me a variety of opportunities for work and travel. In the past decade, I’ve taken part in four residency programs around New England, and have found them to be productive and fun. From my point of view, the best thing about these programs is the chance to work outdoors on a regular basis.
In 2017, I launched my most ambitious residency project, aiming to visit and work at all 61 Massachusetts Audubon wildlife sanctuaries, nature centers and museums across Massachusetts. Initially, I insisted on a two year working period but in the end the residency work spanned more than four and a half years! In all, I painted more than 200 watercolors for the project and filled four sketchbooks with hundreds of drawings, notes and studies. In 2019, Mass Audubon decided to publish the results of my residency, and FINDING SANCTUARY, a full-color, 192 page book was printed in 2020.
Birds are not the only subjects I explore with my watercolors. As an artist, I continually seek out subjects that engage my imagination, and re-ignite my passion for nature. I enjoy working with landscapes, flowers and plants, as well as fish, mammals and other animals. For me, however, inspiration most often comes in the form of birds. Their beauty and variety are a constant source of inspiration and I know they will always be my favorite subject!
