Art
Barker worked principally in watercolor with pen-and-ink, but she was equally competent in black-and-white, in oils, and in pastels. She carried a sketchbook with her for capturing interesting children. She once indicated, "I have always tried to paint instinctively in a way that comes naturally to me, without any real thought or attention to artistic theories."
Kate Greenaway was a childhood favorite and an influence on her art. Barker's child subjects wear nostalgic clothing as Greenaway's children do, though Barker's children are less melancholy and less flat in appearance, due perhaps to advances in printing technology. Barker studied flowers with an analytical eye and was friend to children's illustrator, Margaret Tarrant.
The Pre-Raphaelites were a strong, lifelong influence on Barker. She once indicated, "I am to some extent influenced by them—not in any technical sense, but in the choice of subject matter and the feeling and atmosphere they could achieve." She admitted a fondness for the early paintings of John Everett Millais and "the wonderful things" of Edward Burne-Jones.
Read more about this topic: Cicely Mary Barker
Famous quotes containing the word art:
“The two great things yet to be discovered are these—The Art of rejuvenating old age in men, & oldageifying youth in books.—Who in the name of the trunk-makers would think of reading Old Burton were his book published for the first to day.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“We’re made so that we love
First when we see them painted, things we have passed
Perhaps a hundred times nor cared to see;
And so they are better, painted—better to us,
Which is the same thing. Art was given for that;
God uses us to help each other so,”
—Robert Browning (1812–1889)
“All art is a struggle to be, in a particular sort of way, virtuous.”
—Iris Murdoch (b. 1919)