Voorwinden (Barrie)

DESCRIPTION

NameVoorwinden (Barrie)DescriptionMay Barrie and her husband Willem Voorwinden moved to the Calderwood Valley in 1950.

There, in a place they called ‘Callemondah’, they restored a dilapidated weatherboard cottage, built a new dairy, and established a herd of Ayrshires.

During the 1950’s, their three boys, Barrie, Julian and Jason rode to Marshall Mount Primary School. Their daughters, Victoria (Tori), and later the youngest, Julie, also rode horses to the school.

Alongside the growing family and dairy farming, May continued to work as a Sculptor.

May first studied Sculpture at the National Art School in Sydney (East Sydney Tech) 1938-1941. After graduating, she returned to the Barrie family farm at Duntroon, Canberra. There at Duntroon, she met Willem (Wim) who arrived in Australia with the Dutch Airforce. They married and traveled to Holland and to South Africa, returning to Canberra before searching for their own farm.

May’s first exhibition was held in South Africa in 1947. Her work has been primarily in stone, but early works included terracotta modeled animals and portraits, also delicate sepia drawings of animals and children.

Since then, May has exhibited regularly with the Sculptors Society in Sydney. Her work was also selected for many Sculpture Prizes during the late 1950’s, through the 1960’s and into the early 1970’s. She has also worked on private and public art commissions.

Much of May’s early sculpture at Calderwood explored the local sandstone. Without electricity until the late 1960’s, her work was done with mallet and chisel and polished by hand. Marble, granite and Calderwood conglomerate were worked on a smaller scale.

Since 1971 May has held regular exhibitions in the studio, garden and paddocks of ‘Callemondah’. Works became much larger with the acquisition of new power tools. Consequently they were harder to transport to exhibitions in galleries. In 1996 Wollongong Regional Art Gallery held a major survey exhibition of her work, complemented with large works on site at ‘Callemondah’.

When the dairy closed in the early 1970’s, and with family grown up, May and Wim were free to travel to India, Afghanistan, Turkey, Morocco, Mongolia, Europe; all provided inspiration for life and art.

May continued to work on large hunks of rock. Students continue to come to work under her experienced guidance and visitors are always welcomed.

Contributed by May Barrie 2006

External LinkWife, daughters run farm for prisoner of warVoorwinden - BarrieWater colours and statuary attract wide attentionDinsdale's development through the generations

Person

De Mestre, Tori

May Barrie working on sculptures at Callemondah.

Photo taken by Jeff Carter

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CollectionFamiliesLocalityCalderwood

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Voorwinden (Barrie)