Mary Barnes is a British oil painter specialising in landscapes.

The predominately rural county of Somerset is the inspiration behind many of her paintings, providing her with the challenge of capturing a sense of place and atmosphere with a freshness and lightness of touch indicative of contemporary impressionism.

"I paint whatever catches my eye, usually because of a combination of colour, shape and light which I long to give a sense of place to in the painting."

After completing a Foundation Art & Design course in 1979 I took a varied career path that always involved some aspect of art and design (garden designer, teacher of art to adults with special needs) however, my own work only took off when I joined a local art group and started painting in oils.

Since then, I have taken part in Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year 2020 as a wildcard (you can see me for about 2.5 seconds in the first episode of that series at Chartwell) and Broadway Arts Festival Paint Out, and have exhibited with the Bruton Art Society and the Blandford Art Society (both juried).

I am a member of the Visual Artists Association and Bruton Art Society.