Muriel Barclay

Artist’s Statement

Muriel started painting seriously and selling her work in her forties, having had a career as a history teacher and bringing up 3 sons.

Recently she has been exploring the representation of human desire for control and its frustration. The tension between natural and artificial environments, and the commodification of modern life are related concepts informing her work. As a child of the sixties, pacifism, feminism and socialism are important ideologies but are approached obliquely through the use of appealing images, ambiguity and sometimes humour.

Ultimately, nothing can be said in a painting if the formal aspects are not working – colour, composition, drawing, tone and texture – and her aim is to produce a beautiful thing. Control and passion are intimately connected conceptually but also in the material aspects of painting in the harmonisation of form and content.

Muriel Barclay
3.03.03