Moyra Barry

  

 Connemara Girl - Oil on Board

Moyra Barry was an accomplished flower-painter who was fascinated by the contrasts of colour and shape that could be achieved through thoughtful arrangement of her subject-matter. Through building up a wide combination of flower-shapes, grouped in close proximity, Barry achieved a great sense of depth and density in her work, which gave the texture of her flowers a life-like quality. Barry's floral pieces were highly sought-after and widely exhibited throughout the city of Dublin where she initially studied at the Royal Hibernian Academy School, before finishing her studies at the prestigious Slade School of Fine Art in London.

In later life Barry experimented with other subjects, particularly landscape and portraiture where she also began to expand the range of her technique. Her landscape work in partiular has a highly stylised quality not visible in the flower paintings. By contrast, her portraits combine a sharp outline with a freer approach to detail in the shadow and attire of her figures. She also privileges the provocative gaze of her subjects, caught in particular moment, over the setting and situation of her portraits. Barry's work was circulated privately in her lifetime and is therefore widely sought-after because it is rarely exhibited.

Barry died in 1960, but her later work contains a fresh and modern quality that is perhaps inspired by her residence in Ecuador where she taught painting to young students.