Carlos Barrios

mixed media on paper

 Metro Gallery (Melbourne), Mitchell Fine Arts (Brisbane), Aarwun Gallery (Canberra)

This artwork means to me:

The joy of living in a beautiful place

Greetings to nature

To be inspired and feel connected

Allowing the colours, lines and brushstrokes to flow

Free.

 

To feel that state in the process of making marks when we love everything

And all make sense

 

The daily prayer to be in oneness or al least its search.

 

 

 

 

 

 

About me:

Born in El Salvador 1966

Migrated to Australia 1990

Currently living in the currumbin valley of the Gold Coast

Carlos Barrios, born in El Salvador in Central America, now lives and works in Queensland. His father was an archaeologist and he grew up exploring remnants of ancient cultures and surrounded by artifacts and art.

“I would stare into them [artifacts] and found myself transported to other dimensions, times and spaces. Everything was talking to me especially clouds and shadows, they seemed to describe a space between reality and fantasy, filled with adventures.”

Carlos Barrios began painting figures and creatures from his imagination at the age of six. However when he was ten, civil war broke out and Barrios found himself illustrating the horrific scenes of war.

 “The civil war began when I was ten and lasted over ten years. In this war time madness and normality coexisted. Many nights the electricity was cut and in the candle lit spaces of the house I saw creatures moving and watching us, so I would paint and draw them. As I worked I would watch my hand moving, creating the figures and creatures, I was the onlooker, the witness to this seemingly automatic unfolding of pictures, visual descriptions.”

The main focus of his artworks are to paint the good he believes is in everyone. This is the reason many of his paintings are filled with figures, “I must paint people”, Barrios explains.

Carlos Barrios has been a finalist in several art prizes including the Blake Prize, Sulman Prize, NSW Plein Air Art Prize and the Fisher Ghost Art Prize.

carlosbarrios.com.au