Artists

Leonie Barton

Leonie Barton  Bio Leonie Barton is a self-taught artist based in Avalon Beach in Sydney’s picturesque Pittwater area. The environment feeds into her practice as she follows the changing seasons around her and how the complexity of nature is in constant flux. Both the power and stillness of the outdoors inform her practice, whether it’s her drawings, paintings, ephemeral installations, or the large format photography from solo travels through remote areas of the world. Barton had always drawn from a young age as well as constructing small ephemeral installations from natural materials in the bush where she grew up in far north Queensland. Her art practice continued throughout life, squeezed in and around a film production career and later on children, opening an art store to secure studio space and becoming an illustrative painter for Geddes Group, until she could commit to becoming a full-time artist in 2017. The ‘Ephemeral Installation Photography’ project consisting of now over 680 works, began with a daily discipline of creating a sculptural installa2on on the ground made only from discarded natural or human-made detritus. These installations were created wherever she found herself in the world, outback Australia, China, India, Morocco, Asia, across Europe and the U.S. with the bulk of the series created on the shores of her beloved Pittwater. Barton began working intuitively, discovering shapes, balance and harmony in the compositions; however rather than call herself a photographer, the artist used the medium of photography to document her installations, capturing the fleeting sculpture. Barton has exhibited these in Sydney, Melbourne, London and Singapore by invitation of the curators of PHOTO17. In 2019 the artist was commissioned by Oatleys Wines to create a range of exclusive labels for the Artist Series with Craigmoor Wines created on-site in the vineyards at Mudgee NSW. After returning from India in 2018, Barton found she required spine surgery, a turning point in both life and practice, thought and process. Needing to step away (for a time) from the physical involvement of the ephemeral, she turned to studio painting in small time frames, which over 18 months became longer sessions on larger surfaces. While building her new discipline from the ground up she has unearthed a passion to paint, allowing the work to be intuitive, all the while learning how to define her new practice. Part of Barton’s recent turn to painting is about attempting to relinquish control; letting go and exploring the scope of creativity and its potential materials. Within Barton’s paintings, there is a balance between the ephemeral shapes captured in her prints, to a looser mediation on boards, paper and canvas. Her gestural abstracts echo the colour fields of Rothko or Barbara Hepworth’s modernist sculptures— defined by a mixture of soft and sharp edges, the colour and brushwork give off emotion that is rooted in aesthetics. The process is joyful, instinctive and becomes about the formal aspects; how the line, colour, and form are discovered through individual mark-making. Spending time in nature is essential to the artist’s practice, for its grounding and for its allowance to encounter the intimate details of life — slowly. Like a big open space, Barton’s paintings capture the anonymity of being alone in the desert, like the scenes captured in her photographs of North West NSW, Central Australia, crossing the Sahara, or traversing Namibia. Going forward, Barton hopes to apply more local pigments and grounds to her paintings, make larger-scale works, all while keeping the sculpture exploration simmering in the background. She also hopes to take on more site-specific commissions for the ‘Ephemeral Installation Photography’. Most recently Barton was invited by Michael Brennan (Director) of Noosa Regional Gallery to instruct a week-long Masterclass and mentor the artists in the biannual land art festival Floating Lands.  Artist Statement Everyone has now traversed periods of confinement, everyone as a whole has now experienced boundaries and parameters, limitations that at the time, now and perhaps in the future, have no defined end date. Each of us involuntarily had to find a way, a process or a system to navigate staying inside the lines. I compartmentalised all of it. It is my nature to package each department of my life, so I can look for some control over it. I stack and arrange them, so everything can be separate but live alongside each other. But, where are the edges, how hard can I push up against them, are they soft to lean on, or rigid and sharp. Can I move them around, so I can be more comfortable …. Geometrically Speaking? 

SOLO EXHIBITION
2022 “From an Umber Landscape Curated by Rosby Art Gallery
2021 “Textura” Curated by Sophie Vander – Curatorial + Co
2019 “An Audience of One” – Sydney Road Gallery

GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2021 “Darlings”2020 Curated by Sophie Vander – Curatorial + Co
2020 “Here With Me” Curated by Sophie Vander – Curatorial + Co
2020 “August” Curated by Sarah Montgomery – Sydney Road Gallery
2020 Small Works Curated by Sarah Montgomery – Sydney Road Gallery
2020 “June” Curated by Sarah Montgomery – Sydney Road Gallery
2020 “April” Curated by Sarah Montgomery – Sydney Road Gallery
2020 “Jan” Curated by Sarah Montgomery – Sydney Road Gallery
2019 “Share the Dignity” Curated by Amber Creswell Bell – The Happen Store
2019 “One Day in June” Curated by Sarah Montgomery – Sydney Road Gallery
2019 “Pause and Reflect” Curated by Sarah Montgomery – Sydney Road Gallery
2019 “Where We Stand” Curated by Sarah Montgomery – Sydney Road Gallery
2019 “Autumnal” Curated by Sarah Montgomery – Sydney Road Gallery
2019 “Take Me Back” Curated by Sarah Montgomery – Sydney Road Gallery
2019 “Tickled Pink” Curated by Sarah Montgomery – Sydney Road Gallery
2018 “Why So Serious” Curated by Sarah Montgomery – Sydney Road Gallery
2018 “The Green Room” Curated by Sarah Montgomery – Sydney Road Gallery
2018 “What Lies Beneath” Curated by Sarah Montgomery – Sydney Road Gallery
2018 “Chasing the Sun” Curated by Sarah Montgomery – Sydney Road Gallery
2017 “PHOTO17” Invitation/Curated by Patricia De La Motte, Singapore Contemporary
2017 “The Other Art Fair” By Selection – The Facility Melbourne
2017 “Landshape” Curated by Sophie Vander Curatorial + Co – Sheffer Gallery
2017 “LAND” By Invitation/Curated by Katherine Roberts Director – MAG+M
2016 “The Other Art Fair” By Selection – Sydney
2016 “Artisans in The Gardens” By Selection – Royal Botanical Gardens
2016 “Vantage Points” Curated by Lisa Woolfe – ArtEst
2015 “The Game” Curated by Kendall Henry Officer for Public Works, New York
2015 “Your Art Our Walls” By Invitation – Kings Place Gallery, London
2008 “ASX-Reuters Art Exhibition” By Invitation – Sydney 2007 “ASX-Reuters Art Exhibition” By Invitation – Sydney
2005 “Queenwood Art Show” By Selection – Sydney 2005 “St Josephs Art Show” By Selection – Sydney 2005 “St Augustines Art Show” By Selection – Sydney 2005 “Harbord Art Show” By Selection – Sydney 2005 “ArtSPOT Summer Show” Sydney

PRIZES
2020 “Little Things Art Prize” Finalist – Sydney
2016 “The Contemporary Art Award” Finalist – Brisbane
2006 “The Churchie Emerging Artist Prize ” Finalist – Brisbane
2006 “Warringah Art Prize” Finalist – Sydney
2006 “Willoughby Art Prize” Finalist – Sydney
2006 “Woollahra Art Prize” Finalist – Sydney
2006 “Hills Grammar Art Prize” Finalist – Sydney
2006 “Toyota Community Spirit Award” Finalist – Melbourne

COMMISSIONS
2019 Oatley Wines “Artist Series Labels” Craigmoor Vineyards, Mudgee INTERIOR DESIGN COLLABORATIONS
2019 Space & Co Sydney by BVN Architecture and Curatorial + Co WORKSHOPS + MENTORING
2019 Masterclass Leader, Ephemeral Workshop July – Noosa Regional Gallery
2019 Mentor/Lead Ephemeral Artist Floating Lands Land Art Exhibition October – Noosa Regional Gallery 2016 Workshop Leader Commissioned by Pittwater Council – Newport Art Festival RESIDENCIES
2016 Awarded by Jacky Winter Gardens – Melbourne