Barbara Peirson

The first thing I do when I wake up is squeeze some paint onto a palette so that I’m ready to begin painting before there is any time for thoughts to interfere, attempting to make the most of the liminal state between sleep and wake where the subconscious is still within reach. Every day I walk out to the coastal marshes where I live, so the mud flats, water meadows, big skies and sea are usually a starting point for a painting. Out of the process of painting a sense of narrative emerges. I aim to capture the feeling of being in the landscape, or the fleeting moments between people there, something elusive, that can’t quite be pinned down, understood or put into words but that nevertheless evokes a recognition in the viewer of a shared human experience.


Born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Barbara Peirson trained as an actor and spent many years touring nationally and abroad, eventually settling in the Essex coastal town of Wivenhoe. 

Barbara’s work can be seen regularly in The Biscuit Factory, Newcastle; Cambridge Contemporary Art Gallery; Haylett’s Gallery, Maldon; Bircham Gallery, Holt and is held in collections at: Falmouth Art Gallery, Cornwall; East Contemporary Art Collection; Contemporary British Painting; Priseman Seabrook Collection; Swindon Art Gallery; Ham Yard Hotel, Piccadilly, London.

artist’s website