Celtic landscapes, wild seascapes, trad musicians & surf scenes are the subject matter for Barry’s exclusive limited edition pen & ink prints, posters and apparel. Celtic motifs & hidden pictures within pictures which require close examination have become the norm in his art.
Background
Born & bred in Co. Donegal, I am a self taught artist & have spent most of my life in my native Rossnowlagh, close to its magnificent golden strand listening to the chorus of the wild Atlantic waves, creating & surfing to my hearts content. A few years were spent in exile in Dublin in the 1970s where a promising career in architecture beckoned. However, by 1978, I had made good my escape from the big city & put in the foundations for a home on my father’s farm, overlooking Durnesh Lake, in Rossnowlagh. And I am still there today.
Surfing had arrived in Rossnowlagh in the mid 1960s courtesy of my mother who acquired a couple of surfboards for the use of the guests of her hotel, the Sand House, which is on the beach. But she also had five young sons who, when they spotted the potential for fun in the sea, commandeered the surfboards for their own amusement!
By 1968 my father, ‘the Boss’, had spotted the potential of this new sport too. He named the hotel pub the Surfers Bar instigated the first lntercounties Surfing Contest which still runs today as an annual end of season get together party in Rossnowlagh during the month of October. One of my older brothers, Conor, started designing posters for the event in the early days. In 1971, with Conor away on placement for his hotel management ‘studies’, it fell to younger brother Barry to produce a surf poster for that year …… & so I have been doing them ever since! Many of the posters are on show in the Surfers Bar still, & they can also be seen at the Local Hands Arts & Crafts co-op in nearby Ballyshannon. The Rossnowlagh lntercounties Surfing Party celebrated 50 years in existence in 2017. At the turn of the millennium I was honoured to be commissioned by Randy Rarrick, contest director and organizer of the Triple Crown of Surfing, to design posters for some of his Hawaiian events, the most prestigious surf contests in the world. It was while creating the posters for him that I became more aware of colour- Randy insisted they had to be in full colour for the bright tropics of Hawaii. You can still find me during the summer months at Britton & Daughters studio gallery on the seafront in Rossnowlagh, but if the surf is up all you’ll see is my ‘GONE SURFING’ sign!
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