Musical artist to hold exhibition
A Taranaki artist galloping his way to a new exhibition is also a finalist in a prestigious portraits show. Virginia Winder learns about a man stimulated by music and coffee.
In a Taranaki church, six-yearold Jordan Barnes asks his mum Louise for a pen. Passed along the pew, he holds it fast and draws on the Sunday service sheet.
‘‘I would draw portraits of people in the church and give them to the people after the service,’’ the 34-year-old says.
For Barnes, art has always been about the people. It still is.
In his apartment and studio above shops in central New Plymouth, faces, bodies, limbs are scattered on canvas, sketched on paper, hang about like flat-packed ghosts.
At the back of his painting space is a turquoise work in oils called
It zooms in on individuals and a dog sitting in a subway station.
Barnes is a regular visitor to the city that never sleeps, and as he slips through and below teeming streets he’s always watching, capturing moments on his camera.
‘‘I’m intensely curious about people. The one common thread in my work is the study of humans really. They are in many different environments. It’s about people and how they are thinking and feeling.’’
The family-focused man’s favourite picture hangs on his bedroom wall.
It’s a sick-bed painting of his brother Malachi, a builder, who battled and beat cancer in 2009. Barnes painted it in 2011 and, with gentle joy, says: ‘‘He’s good, perfect; he’s got two little sons and is married.’’
Barnes had a painting of Malachi’s son, Fletcher, accepted for the 2020 Adam Portraiture Award. ‘‘I’ve been in the finals of the three main New Zealand art awards, but I haven’t won one.’’
Like Fletcher as the Witness ,a large canvas called Sleepy Hollow is a study in blue.
Dominating his studio, the painting, rich with story, is one of about 10 works featuring in an upcoming show. A Collective Unconscious – works on paper and selected studies runs from March 8 to April 8 at the Hall of Design gallery in Oakura.
‘‘In this new show, I’m dealing with archetypes,’’ he says, sitting on a gold brocade couch, blue paint spatter on left knee, wearing all black – shoes, mid-calf socks, shorts, T-shirt.
‘‘My interest in archetypes comes from why I’m so drawn to people and I’m always painting people.’’
He’s also been online reading about Carl Jung and listening to podcasts, learning about the 12 personalities posed by the Swiss founder of analytical psychology.
‘‘I found it so fascinating that it’s forming the basis of the show. I’m dealing with my interest in personalities through the stories of people, and stories told in religion and culture.’’
Looking at Jung’s archetypes, the painting of horse and headless rider may represent ‘‘the rebel’’ or ‘‘the explorer’’. Or something else entirely.
Sleepy Hollow tells a tale, as do all Barnes’ works.
This painting reveals a personal narrative too; one where two passions collide.
The just-finished work and a song by the same name both stem from a 2015 trip to New York for his first small art showcase.
On Halloween, he visited Sleepy Hollow, a desolate town steeped in legend and a ‘‘fun ghost story’’ and the song was born. ‘‘It’s fascinating how songs are created – they just come out of nowhere. There always seems to be a situation I attach to a melody.’’
The blue work is brushed, with open strokes, to the galloping track from his 2017 album, Theories.
‘‘I was listening to my song,
Sleepy Hollow. All the demos and all the different versions,’’ he says. ‘‘It (the painting) is a companion to the song.’’
He can’t paint without sound – music, podcasts, documentaries. ‘‘I freeze up if I don’t have something stimulating my mind in a different way.’’
Like his need to draw, the desire to make music came in church, this time at Urenui when he was 10. ‘‘There was a guy playing a guitar in the band and I told my mum, I wanted to play the guitar. I saved up for my first electric guitar – I had a little money box.’’
He grew up listening to punk rock, but his recorded tracks are mellow singer-songwriter tunes coloured with pop, folk and rock.
For Barnes music and painting work together – he often picks up his guitar when he needs a break from the brushes.
The two creative forms came head to head in 2010.
His first single,
had been picked up by Juice TV and was being played on screens nationwide.
He was also in line to land a $15,000 art award.
When being interviewed for the inaugural NZAAT Grant he was put on the spot. ‘‘The selectors wanted to know ‘are you going to do your music or your art?’ That was the crossroads there.’’
He chose painting, beating a field of 500 applicants to win the lucrative grant, which included a six-month residency in a studio at Lyall Bay, Wellington.
‘‘I felt a real responsibility to stick to my word,’’ he says.
But in 2015, music did come around again, when he was approached by American indie music label Lazy Bones Recordings. That led to five of his songs being played on Emmy Award-winning TV show Brooklyn Nine-Nine. He has released two albums and prefers recording and producing to playing live.
And always, art comes first. Rewinding to that 2011 residency, Barnes submerged himself in painting, but learnt the hard way to take care with chemicals while working.
‘‘I was painting in the studio and I felt like my head was closing in on me.’’
He called the ambulance, was found collapsed on the floor with his pupils dilated and was taken to hospital. ‘‘The doctor was asking me ‘what drugs are you taking?’’’
The artist was as clear as his realist paintings – none.
‘‘He didn’t believe me. I don’t do drugs,’’ he says. ‘‘It took me three months to recover – I had rashes, headaches, twitches.’’
From then on, he has been smarter about the way he paints, keeping everything as clean as possible.
Living in the city enables Barnes easy access to his favourite fuel – coffee.
In his mid-20s, he had five attacks of acute pancreatitis in two years. ‘‘I was told I was never able to drink alcohol again. Based on that I fell in love with coffee.’’
He starts the day with a doubledouble flat white. ‘‘I love drinking coffee in many cafes and it fuels me all day long.’’
Diplomatically, he won’t single out his favourite cafe´ . ‘‘I feel loyal to everyone.’’
As well as coffee stops, he breaks up his days by running (without music) and surfing.
‘‘For me it’s about being in the open air, watching the environment and landscape and enjoying the sounds of nature. That helps me physically and mentally.’’
While his lifestyle is flexible, he makes sure he works eight hours a day, usually six days a week.
‘‘If I spend too many hours out of the studio, it niggles at me.’’
His hard-graft foundation was laid down by his builder father, Neil, and Barnes’ older brothers, Malachi and Jeremy, who also work on the tools. His sister, Alisha, owns Plantation Design Store.
Growing up, Barnes’ parents recognised his talent and always provided him with art materials.
While Taranaki is the place he calls home, the family did spend three years in Warkworth, where Barnes attended Mahurangi College.
‘‘When I got back to New
Plymouth at 16, I never wanted to leave.’’
He spent six months at Boys’ High before heading to Witt, aged 16. First, he did a short course, then progressed to the Bachelor of Fine Arts programme.
‘‘I came out at 19 with a degree. It was just an excuse to paint and following that I travelled the world and that’s when I developed my own ideas and had a better understanding of art history,’’ he says.
‘‘On that trip I saw a da Vinci drawing in London and that was probably the strongest sense I ever got from a work. It transcended the chalk on paper.
‘‘Da Vinci has always been a huge influence, particularly the way he crossed so many ways of working. He was a sculptor, painter, architect, costume designer, scientist. He was intensely curious and that’s why I relate to him.’’
On his Facebook page, Barnes’ tagline says ‘‘an aspiring Renaissance man’’.
He also admires the works of Italian master Caravaggio and, closer to his home and time, he cites Taranaki painter John McLean as a respected mentor and fellow artist cousin Isaac Petersen as his best friend.
‘‘Obviously, I get very caught up in my work – I’m a perfectionist. I can be struggling with a work, but I enjoy the struggle.’’
He’s no moody artist, filled with angst. ‘‘I’m pretty level; that comes back to having the childhood I had. It was really great and comfortable.’’
Barnes pushes and pushes himself, determined to challenge complacency. ‘‘For me it comes from a place of never totally being satisfied and knowing my best work is yet to come.’’