James Barker: Bio
James Barker (b1931) Northwood - a bushy suburb of Sydney near the Lane Cove National Park.
Barker graduated from East Sydney Technical College in 1955. Fellow students in James’s year were a close knit group of artists which include Ron Lambert; Robin Lawrence; Georgina Worth; Barbara Holliday (Romalis);Wendy Learmonth; Didi (Diana) Vale-Brown.
Other students at East Sydney in the same period included Karen Oom ; Cam Sparks; Ursula Latham ( Laverty) and Elisabeth Cummings. Elisabeth was to join James in Florence some years later, where they were married and spent the ensuing years painting teaching and travelling throughout Europe.
During the period in Florence James and Elizabeth had a constant stream of visiting travellers from Australia many of them fellow art students from East Sydney. In late 1968 Elisabeth and James returned to Australia with their young son Damian, born in Florence just shortly prior to the historic and catastrophic floods of 1966.
Back in Australia, Elisabeth and James painted in and around Coal and Candle Creek, then after the commencement of the building of the “Mud Hut” at Wedderburn, Barker was very much inspired by the surrounding bush and the George’s river which was not far away. Barker painted the bush around Church Point and latterly around the southern banks of the Hawkesbury River around Brooklyn.
James Barker
James Barker (1931-2019) a selection of works curated by Elisabeth Cummings and Damian Barker
June 2-July 17, 2020