About The Artist: Barbara Macfarlane
Barbara Macfarlane is a painter deeply connected to the land and its ever-changing forms. Working primarily in oil and ink on large, handmade paper, her paintings evoke the true essence of places both intimate and vast, from the olive-clad hills of Les Baronnies in southeastern France to the wild Hebridean shores, the grid of Manhattan, and the layered waterways of Hong Kong. Her work distills landscapes into expressive marks and fields of color that balance spontaneity with structure.
A graduate of Exeter School of Art in the early 1980s, Macfarlane first gained recognition for her evocative depictions of the Sussex coast and rural France, where she continues to live and paint. Through bold gestures and simplified forms, she captures the elemental tension of land, sky, and water, creating images that feel at once grounded and abstract.
In recent years, Macfarlane has expanded her vision from the horizon to the aerial view, reimagining cityscapes through the language of maps and abstraction. Inspired by cartography and the bird’s-eye perspectives of Aboriginal painting, she transforms familiar urban grids into vibrant, rhythmic evocations of place. Her work has been exhibited widely, including at the Royal Academy, London, the Grand Palais, Paris, and in collaboration with designer Billy Reid, New York. Barbara’s work is held in major private and corporate collections across Europe, North America, and Asia.
