ABOUT ARTIST - SALLY A BARR

Medium and processes

Sally uses acrylic paint, mediums, charcoal, ink and graphite to create emotive textured pieces.

Techniques used in her work include dry brushing and washes or glazes over modelling paste or heavy body acrylic.

Sally discovered that texture gives her art the raw emotion needed to convey the message in the painting. She uses nature to add extra meaning to much of her work.

Inspirations and influences;

As a texture artist, Sally is heavily inspired by nature, particularly flowers and trees. The flowers in Sally's pieces all have additional meaning both in subject and colour choice. Communication and community are present in the trees and fungi/moss, in particular with The Freedom Collection.

High contrast and exploration of light are both important in her work to show two opposite sides, the yin and yang of life. Hints of Victoriana, Art Deco and Art Nouveau add a Gothic touch to some of her pieces.

Drawing from her own childhood impression of mischief, adventure, spirit and justice, aspects of pirate, and the anarchy symbol appear in some of her work. Whilst this may seem controversial, the meaning of the anarchy symbol in Sally's work is to question the narrative, fight for justice or make a change, and most importantly never about violence.

History/Points of interest

Exhibitions

2025 Safe Spaces, a consortium for street children Exhibition - The Fence, Hide and Seek, Voices from the streets

2025 Collab with Photographer Jilly Booth - for possible book Artists In The Wild

2025 - Group Exhibition - Watford High St - My Laundry Is Not Your Laundry - Watford Fringe

2025 - Open Studios - Watersmeet Theatre - Herts - HVAF

2025 july - sept - Solo Exhibition - Watersmeet Theatre - Herts A Collection of work

2025 July - Solo Exhibition - Cedar Cafe - Cassiobury - Herts - The Freedom Collection

2024 Exhibition projection of image on wall - The Holy Art Gallery -Paris - Rise

2024 Exhibition Light Pulse - International online - Rise and Hello Again

2024 Exhibizone - Rebellion Juried Exhibition- A Call to Arms - Online

2024 Omi Gallery- Art Heals Exhibition- A Call to Arms -London

2024 The Part Crowd Gallery- Mixed Media Exhibition- Rise and Shine -Toronto

2023 The New Artist 6th Edition Exhibition - The Boomer Gallery London - Amygdala Hijack and Rise - Uk

2023 Art as a response to mental health - Doncaster Art Fair - Metamorphosis, A Call To Arms and Amygdala Hijack - Uk

Auctions

2025 - WishesJust4You - Postcard donation

2017 Sally donated an untitled Art Deco piece to a silent auction in Chicago, USA for the hurricane appeal Puerto Rico.

Collaborations/Publications

2025 - Hertsworld Post - Spotlight - Watford Artist Celebrates Double Exhibtion Success

2025 - Volunteer - Women in Art Fair - Oxo Tower

2025 - Volunteer at Wimbledon Art Fair

2025 - The Artworld Post - Sally Barr - Finding Emotion Through Texture

2024 - Volunteer at Wimbledon Art Fair

2024 48th Edition Artstonish Magazine (Juried) -Growth https://www.artistonish.com/p/july2024.html?m=1

2018 Resident Artist - One million Group

2018 As one of the resident artists with The One Million Project Sally collaborated with authors Sheena Macleod and Laura Linham on the book So, You Say I Can’t Vote!: Frances Connelly: The working-class woman’s route to the vote

creating the front cover of Frances Connelly and contributed a few pages of her thoughts on the topic.

2019 Sally illustrated a re-write of the children's book The Legend Of Wendy the Whale. Publishing in London.

2020 Illustrated “The adventures of Shadow” for David Knight Ltd.

2020 Interview “Behind the sketchbook” for UAS

2020 - 2022 Sally joined UAS as Virtual Art Studio community manager, moving on to community manager and later Marketing coordinator. The engagement with thousands of artists on a daily basis was an invaluable experience.