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Barbara Briers

Barbara was born in London, and won a scholarship to the London School of Art whilst still only a teenager. Like most women of her era though, she married and had children. Although there was less time with three growing offspring, she never completely abandoned her art, retaining an abiding interest in both painting and clay modelling.

In 1973 she and her husband decided to emigrate to Australia, and departed on an ocean-going liner for the four-week journey across the world. They came to Queensland, where the Australian government of the day advised there would be employment. They travelled around the state for a while before settling in the south east. Apart from a few years in northern New South Wales, Queensland has been a loved and inspirational home for the artist.

Inspired by the history and heritage of her adopted country, Barbara turned increasingly to her art as the family left home. She has explored and mastered many media. Ever a woman who wants to see results as quickly as possible, she turned from oils to acrylics, which offered the possibility of reworking and developing a realist style which proved popular with buyers. 

Swagmen, kookaburras, the beauty of Australian eucalypts and rainforests, the serenity and big skies of wide open spaces, a bygone era represented by timber Queenslanders and dusty tracks, even urban architecture: all these drew commissions to her door and drew the attention of various small private galleries.

Barbara moved on to watercolour under the brief tuition of Australian artist Estelle Petersen, whose work continues to appear in art auctions and sales records. Barbara also attended art classes by Brin Jones at his School of Fine Arts on the Gold Coast. Proficient also in graphite and coloured ink, she is best known for her beautiful pastel character portraits of pets and other animals.

Barbara's work hangs in homes across Australia as well as internationally: in Russia, America, Japan, New Zealand, France, Germany and her birth country, the United Kingdom. She still lives in South east Queensland and is still painting, as well as exercising her creativity in her much loved garden, which simply offers another palette of colour for her to draw upon.

Some of the paintings shown here can be seen in our Lyrebird Gallery, and are available for sale.

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Market Fest starts up again

Last Saturday saw our Market Fest open again, after 6 months of hibernation due to the corona virus. The lovely spring day brought a big crowd.

Our Information centre kitchen sold takeaway teas and coffees, cold drinks and ice creams only, with visitors queuing up outside the Centre to order and collect their drinks.

We look forward to regular monthly markets now, albeit with corona virus restrictions!