Painter

Barrington Tabb

For the last 40 years Bristol artist Barrington Tabb has been painting Bristol cityscapes. In all weathers, Barrington can be found sketching anything from grand buildings to humble terraces - he loves every aspect of this city.

Barrington Tabb has an individual style. Not to everyone’s taste, the Bristol painter captures a unique view of the city’s landscapes.

Almost every day, Barrington is out and about sketching the city’s buildings - often because they are soon to be knocked down

“I’ve seen great changes in Bristol landscapes over the years,” he says.

“But I’m interested very much in the old sites of Bristol especially places like the Industrial Museum and the bonded warehouses, and streets like St Michael’s Hill and areas like St Annes.”

Barrington has an individual style

It is the history of the old buildings that Barrington loves so much: “It’s like they tell a story, you just need to look at the grime on the buildings - the filth, the dirt, the winds the snow, it all there on these buildings. It’s history.”

Barrington views the city as geometrical shapes and this is how he paints.

“In most scenes I paint I see these wonderful shapes and I put them together, like in Totterdown the houses actually look like they are going to ‘totter down’.”

Further Info | Transcript | Credits

Further Info

Throughout June 2006, BBC Radio Bristol broadcast a series called Through My Eyes in partnership with CSV, featuring recordings of ordinary and extraordinary people who live and work in Bristol.

The sound was exhibited at Watershed and in local libraries, along with specially-commissioned photographs by students from Filton College.

Following the exhibition, the recordings and photographs were put together by Bristol Stories staff and made available on this site.

Thanks to Vikki Klein and Debra Hearne from BBC Radio Bristol.

Transcript

My name is Barrington Tabb, and I think of myself as Bristol’s painter, being that I’ve been painting Bristol for over forty years now. Well my [???] the city is to get out every day, walk around and see for myself, parts of great Bristol that I love, and this is my source of inspiration, and it’s this sort of thing, in actual fact, seeing life itself is what makes the painter tick over.

The building, the Arnolfini over there, I daresay is a couple of hundred years old? It has withstood the elements of nature through hundreds of years really, and it’s still up there. It’s the history - they tell a story you know. You just have a look at the grime on the buildings: the filth, the dirt that’s been escalated through the winds, the snows, the weathers. It’s all there, it’s history.

I’ve got to get this down in my painting because this is how I feel about the situation that confronts me. My vision: my eye brain, my interpretation of shapes in general, and when I say “shapes” I’m mostly on about geometry now. The geometrical shapes of the city itself. Look at the Arnolfini over there: the shapes of that, up against the Industrial Museum and the cranes going… tremendous geometrical shapes in everything I see in front of me, so this creates a great sensation in itself. I’ve done numerous paintings and sketches of St Michaels Hill, which is an absolute wonderful place. It’s just something that I would go back time and time again. The old place of Clifton, through Clifton, it’s absolutely amazing. The little street scenes up there, the roadways it’s just… some of the parts have been knocked down but it’s greatly reserved and that is another wonderful place as well too.

Bristol for me is a beautiful city, and why is it so beautiful? It’s because it’s so… it’s the great expanse of city. It’s… you’ve got breathing space, you’ve got light. Bristol has got… it’s spread out and it’s just delightful.

Credits

All photographs not otherwise credited created by Unknown, used under copyright licence.

All sound recording not otherwise credited created by BBC Radio Bristol, used under copyright licence.

Photographs of Arnolfini and crane created by Paddy Uglow, used under copyright licence.

Paintings created by Barrington Tabb, used under copyright licence.