Biographies > Anne Meredith Barry

Anne Meredith Barry’s two lithographs in the permanent collection reflect her passion for experimentation with print-making and form to create landscape.  This well-known artist’s work has been exhibited widely in North America and internationally.  Her love of drawing began at an early age and resulted in her art education at Ontario College of Art in 1949.  Here she was inspired by the artists Carl Schaefer and Eric Friefeld to explore new approaches in different media.  She also became interested in the work of Japanese printmakers, Hiroshige and Hokusai as well as the paintings of Matisse.   Continuing to paint part-time while raising her family, she began her art career in earnest while in Montreal and gained her first major recognition in the 1969 City of Montreal Art Exhibition. She also began teaching and became involved in various community outreach programmes, including the Artists for Kid Trust in Vancouver and other workshops in Ontario.  In 1971 she went to Newfoundland for the Outports Arts Foundation. She fell in love with the rugged landscape of Newfoundland and continued visiting the province to paint, make prints, and instruct workshops.  Eventually in 1981 she and her husband took over a print shop in Hibb’s Cove Newfoundland.  Anne Barry died in 2003.

Barry received an honorary doctorate from Memorial University of Newfoundland in 1998. As well as TAG her work can be found in private and public collections including the Art Gallery of Newfoundland and Labrador's Permanent Collection; the Art Gallery of Whitehorse, Yukon Territory; Emily Carr College of Art and Design, Vancouver, BC; Tom Thomson Memorial Art Gallery, Owen Sound, Ontario; Artists for Kids Trust, North Vancouver, BC; and the Governor-General of Canada's Collection

Anne said of her work, "One of the many things that fascinates me about making paintings is that I'm dealing with the juxtaposition of opposites - concerns that are formal, conceptual, technical, aesthetic, thoroughly pre-planned, intuitive and haphazard – so that I must constantly adjust my ways of thinking and doing"

Excerpt from artist statement in Anne Meredith Barry: Newfoundland Work exhibition publication, organized by Memorial University Art Gallery, 1991