Kent Barton - Painter, Print Maker, Photographer, Pastel Artist.

Personal story

 When I completed school, I was blessed to have had three years at the Queensland College of Art in Seven Hills, Brisbane, to achieve a Diploma of Visual Communications in 1981. I then worked as a graphic artist for the printing and advertising industries, including my first job at a startup newspaper in Nambour. Eventually, in 1992, I decided to take the financial risk, and began working as a professional artist, producing and selling my artworks. Initially, I had a contract with an Ashgrove Real Estate Agency, to provide black and white drawings of their listings. This gave me great practice at drawing wonderful old houses in the vicinity. I felt a connection with these images, as I had always lived in houses of that era. I began working with these images to produce serigraphs, pastel drawings and paintings to sell, and have continued to do so.

With three growing sons, a mortgage, and all the other family and household financial reasons, a regular, reliable income became the priority. During the 2000's (instead of getting sensible jobs), my wife Lisa, and I took on the challenge and 'bought, renovated and sold' over a dozen houses around Mitchelton, Everton and Stafford areas. This was quite a physical endeavour, as we did most of the work ourselves. During this time I was privileged to have 8 seasons as a junior and youth AFL coach, at Ferny Grove Falcons, with our sons all playing through the club. I played AFL as a teenager, so I became a coach the usual way, nobody else wanted the job!

In 2010, we left Brisbane for the country and created a small hotel and a tourist retail shop in coastal Agnes Water. A beautiful, largely untouched coastal haven, with surf beaches, and all the wonderful wildlife. We built and operated these businesses for 15 years, and have now sold up and moved back to Brisbane. 

With such inspiration from the city, country and coast, I have always been producing and selling art during my other endeavours, and have been quite busy, and loving it! Stay tuned on Facebook and Instagram, (that means - follow my pages ... Kent Barton Artist).

A fun fact, my great grandfather George Barton, was the older brother of Sir Edmund Barton .. Australia's first Prime Minister. When George lectured Law at Sydney University, Edmund was one of his students.

Timeline Gallery

above .. 1982, a part of my artist job at a weekly rag in Nambour, was to produce a kid's cartoon .. 'Spikey the Pineapple' .. I think I should revisit Spikey.

above .. 1985, my first business venture, I created 'Points' a monthly magazine for Maroochydore to Kawana area. I still had a day job at a local Printers, and a sales rep selling ad space. We pumped out a few editions, and it was growing, but I had to make the hard career decision to leave the Sunshine Coast to look for better Graphic Artist jobs in Brisbane.

above .. 1985, when searching for a Graphic Artist job in Brisbane, I drew this comic and put it on job applications, it worked well. (amazingly I kept the original)

above .. 1988, three mates on a surfing trip in the Far East, that's me in the middle. 

above .. 1990, my wife Lisa and I, and Roxanne our black dog.

above .. as a Graphic Artist, I created everything from business cards and letterheads, to logos, brochures, catalogues, and I also produced a lot of illustrations of buildings from the plans, (black and white elevations), including this painting and layout from 1992. 

above .. 1992, I quit my job and followed my dream. I learned a silkscreen printmaking method at Art College and, with no real plans, began making simple pictures. They look good but can I sell them?  I set up at markets for a few weeks, then I began selling the works at a wholesale rate to Picture Framers and Galleries, for many years.

above .. one of my many commissioned paintings, a lovely home in Chelmer.

above .. 1990s, our 3 sons all attended Alderley Kindy, and I painted this near the entrance for the Centre. 

above .. 1990s, when my picture 'Sunday Morning II' was printed on the then, Brisbane Lord Mayor, Jim Soorley's Christmas cards, I gained a Sunday Mail story. My pictures were printed in many publications, sadly I have only kept a few, (too many house moves).

above .. 1990s, the 'mock-up' for a 3.6 metre wide triptych painting, and the first panel, behind the Reception at North West Hospital. I also supplied many of my pictures to decorate wards, offices and halls. This was one of many commercial commissions that I have produced.

above .. 1990s, this is me making the original silkscreen printed edition of 'backstreet shuffle'

above .. 2000s, 8 seasons being a coach at Ferny Grove Falcons JAFC, a great experience, I managed to coach our 3 sons, in different years. This photo looks like we're about to run on, and I'm heading to the coaches box.

above .. 2007, we bought a 5 acre property, 3 klm to the beach, in Agnes Water. A remote and tiny town, with surfing beaches, lots of wilderness, access to the southern Great Barrier Reef, and a growing tourism. We designed and built 4 luxury cabins and created a country holiday resort. The cabins were built in Maroochydore and transported to Agnes, We moved there in 2010 to finish the project and start operating.

above .. I created an Outdoor Art Gallery on our resort, as a further tourist attraction. It consisted of about 60 pictures printed on outdoor material in a variety of sizes. Some were attached to trees, others were set on poles.

above .. 2010 to 2024, living at Agnes Water gave me a chance to document Queensland coastal and country, through these artworks, and around 100 more. 

above .. 2010, we opened our tourist shop in Agnes Water, which was Lisa's 'day to day' and the resort was my mine. Together, we oversaw and worked on both enterprises. Eventually we sold both businesses in 2024, and left paradise, and moved back to Brisbane.

above .. the original artwork of a couple of my T-shirt designs that we sold at the shop. 

above .. the town tourist map I created, with more town information on the back. They were available free to tourists at most shops and accommodation Receptions in town.