John
Barkley


Works

Abstract Works

Elixir


16’’ x 20’’

Felt #2


16’’ x 20’’

Homage


30’’ x 30’’

Opposites Meeting


20’’ x 40’’

Amalgam


16’’ x 20’’

Drawn #2


16’’ x 20’’

Epiphany


16’’ x 20’’

Jaunt


16’’ x 20’’

Rapture #3


16’’ x 20’’

Realms


16’’ x 20’’

Released


16’’ x 20’’

The Approach


16’’ x 20’’

Back and Forth


20’’ x 20’’

Emerging From Within #2


20’’ x 20’’

Memory Traces


20’’ x 20’’

The Fire Within


20’’ x 20’’

Spark Within


20’’ x 24’’

Entry In


30’’ x 30’’

Risen #2


30’’ x 30’’

Contraries in Motion #2


30’’ x 36’’

Once Again


36’’ x 30’’

Revision


36’’ x 30’’

Tinctures in Expanse


36’’ x 30’’

Traces in Space


36’’ x 30’’

Marred Surface


40’’ x 40’’

Prana Push


40’’ x 48’’

Interior Terrain


40’’ x 48’’

Underneath It All


40’’ x 48’’

Existing Within


48’’ x 48’’

Cosmic Garden Seed


48’’ x 60’’

Cosmic Shift


48’’ x 60’’

Red and Green Stream of Mind


48’’ x 60’’

Always Moving


48’’ x 72’’

Emerging And Receding #3


48’’ x 72’’

Fire, Water, and Light #4


72’’ x 48’’

From The Void


48’’ x 72’’

Towards an Embrace


48’’ x 72’’

Within The Realms


48’’ x 72’’

Cosmic Entry


54’’ x 84’’

That Which Awakens


54’’ x 84’’

Rhapsody Reflections #2


54’’ x 84’’

Within and Beyond


60’’ x 48’’

Enchanted Cascade


72’’ x 60’’

Meditation Moments


60’’ x 72’’

Moments After


60’’ x 72’’

Landscapes

Evening Approaches


30’’ x 30’’

A Way In


72’’ x 60’’

Almost There


72’’ x 60’’

Another View


30’’ x 60’’

Blue Path In


48’’ x 60’’

Coloured Entrance


20’’ x 20’’

Coloured Time


30’’ x 30’’

Creek to River


16’’ x 20’’

Gatineau Turn 2


20’’ x 20’’

Inside


20’’ x 20’’

In Between


24’’ x 24’’

Meech Creek Colours


36’’ x 36’’

Spring Fresh


20’’ x 24’’

The Invitation


48’’ x 60’’

The Other Side #2


16’’ x 20’’

The Painter’s Path #14


72’’ x 60’’

Vista Breeze


20’’ x 20’’


Biography

I am an experimental painter. I have been working on my craft since 1996. I start work with a conceptual point of entry and then work intuitively, in dialogue with the work. The art making process largely determines the completion of the piece, and one work often then leads to another. My experience within the studio is a catalyst for my departure from a mode of modern secular monophasic consciousness into an experience of interconnected consciousness with nature and all living things. My environmental concerns, existential questions, and my academic interests influence the starting point. In the work, I contemplate questions pertaining to ultimate meaning, death and issues of personal control.

In 2000, I wrote a Masters thesis which created a new hermeneutic of art based upon the work of Jung, Tillich, and Hiedegger, it was subsequently applied to the work of Roland Poulin. The thesis included significant discussion about the relationship between art, cosmogony, and the human psyche. In my research I have studied philosophers and theologians that challenge conventional wisdom and advocate the adoption of a new mythology. I have been developing a visual vocabulary to explore this idea.

My work is influenced by and linked to many Quebec artists. My painting application has recently been compared, by one critic, to Riopelle and Borduas, and the contrast between the organic and geometric to Charles Gagnon. I have been influenced by Poulin’s use of opposites to create tension, and his use of dark void forms. In my work I examine consciousness by using abstraction and a symbolic vocabulary. A visual vocabulary has been derived from natural elements and industry and is used as a vehicle for the examination and expression of the contemporary psyche.

– John Barkley

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