Barbara Rochester grew up in Germany, and first came to England in 1964, since when she has lived in the village of Lympstone on the Exe Estuary in East Devon.

Barbara started out as the maker of beautiful clothes and objects from fabrics and textiles, and was also a teacher of these crafts. She began to paint seriously in the 1980s, and was soon encouraged by the response to her work to devote herself to it full time.

Her distinctive paintings are intended to bring colour and beauty into a domestic setting and take their inspiration from the colours of mediaeval paintings and tapestries and from bright flowers and fabrics. It is her use of colour, which is always vibrant but at the same time calm and pleasing, that unifies a wide range of work, and she often uses techniques which add extra texture to her work, such as sgraffito or the application of gold leaf. She paints jewel-like abstracts, mediaeval romances, and glowing flower still-lifes. Her landscape paintings reveal a bolder, brighter vision of the Devon countryside. While her portraits, especially those of children, are much in demand.

Her work has been exhibited widely in East Devon and has won many prizes and commendations. Barbara has exhibited with the South West Academy of Fine and Applied Arts since 2003 and she became an Academician in 2006.

www.barbararochester.co.uk