Anne Meredith Barry “Newfoundland: Land & Sea”
Anne Meredith Barry “Newfoundland: Land & Sea” March 6 – 22, 2025
The gallery has had a special relationship with Anne Meredith Barry for many years. Correspondence between the artist and the gallery date back to 1995, first recorded in Anne’s beautiful looping script. Since that time we have lived vicariously through her joyful paintings and prints of the Newfoundland landscape, images that are bold and graphic in colour and dazzling in pattern.
For the month of March we have curated an exhibition of paintings, original works on paper and prints of Barry’s beloved adopted province. Her sweeping vistas will take us on a rich visual journey along the rugged coast and down river valleys, showing us the strong, fragile and fluid world in all of its harsh and poignant beauty.
My home and studio are located in St.Michael’s. This is a small Newfoundland outport, perched on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean, south of the City of St. John’s. Here, I live surrounded by an environment characterized by constant change – turbulent weather, four dramatically different seasons, and the endless rhythmic migrations of icebergs, whales, seabirds and sea creatures. Everything outside my studio is both in harmony and in conflict. Everything endlessly creates and destroys the other – wind, water and land. The marks of geological time are here also. For me, it’s important to know that aeons ago the place where I live was part of Africa; and that there are parts of this island that originated in the Appalachian Mountains, parts that have tilted to expose layers beneath the Earth’s crust, and parts that were formed by volcanoes. The marks of these events are in my mind as I work, and are another part of this island’s magic. My paintings and prints acknowledge this strong, fragile and fluid world in all of its harsh and poignant beauty. And through my work, I try to deal in a very personal way with my observations, participation, and feelings about some of these timeless things in this timeless place.
Anne Meredith Barry, 1994
Born in Toronto in 1932, Anne Meredith Barry graduated from the Ontario College of Art in 1954. After visiting Newfoundland for the first time in 1971, Anne fell in love with the landscape and focused her life’s work on the power of her surrounding environment. She purchased and restored St. Michael’s printshop, St. Michael’s NFLD in 1987 and remained there for the rest of her life.
As well as supporting the local arts community, Barry traveled extensively conducting art workshops in remote areas of the country. Her involvement heightened her awareness of humankind’s place in nature, giving her a sense of her own place on the planet. Growing environmental and ecological movements focused her attentions on the vulnerability and fragility of the earth, giving her a new respect and appreciation for the land.
Her work, whether a painting or work on paper, always focused on the strength and beauty of the Newfoundland landscape.
Anne Meredith Barry’s artistic career spanned four decades. Her work has been featured at many venues throughout Canada and internationally. Solo public exhibitions include shows at Sir Wilfred Grenfell College Art Gallery, Newfoundland, the Blackwood Gallery, Toronto and the Art Gallery at University of Ulster at Belfast, Ireland. Her commissions included projects for the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra and Parks Canada.
Many art museums as well as outstanding private and public collections contain her work, such as American Express, Bell Canada, the Canada Council Art Bank, the Canadian Department of External Affairs and Shell Oil. Elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Art in 1995, she received an honourary degree from Memorial University in 1997 and was awarded the Queen’s Jubilee Medal two weeks before she passed away in January 2003.