About

Nick Barberton was born near Cape Town in 1946 and grew up in a seaside
village. After school and Military service (South African Navy) he went to
Johannesburg College of Art where he gained a diploma in Industrial Design.
He started work as a Designer and Draftsman for a firm making Wireware and
point of sales display items, but soon started working for himself making
wooden furniture. In 1976, now married with a small daughter, the family
moved to France and then on to the Netherlands where he found work
building traditional Dutch Sailing Barges. In 1978 they moved to Christchurch
in Dorset to build yachts but were unable to get a work permit. The
following June, with the necessary permit, he took a temporary job as a Craft
teacher followed by part time work as a technician and then as an
Occupational therapist, when he started working in wood again. The Stations
of the Cross at Sarum St Martins1983-84. From 1987 he was a full time self
employed woodworker making furniture and undertaking carvings to
commission, turning wooden bowls for craft shops and Galleries.
His work is seen in several churches mainly in Hampshire, Winchester
Cathedral, a garden seat at Sculpture at Goodwood and the gates at Artsway.
He took part in Chelsea Craft Fair 1999 to 2005 and Origin 2006-07 showing
long carved vessels and was selected by the Crafts Council in 1999. He has
exhibited at The Crafts Council, Scottish Gallery, Oxford Gallery, New
Ashgate Gallery, Artsway, Rufford, Craft Study Centre and several provincial
Galleries. He has three pieces in the Handling Trail for the blind and partially
sighted at Manchester City Art Gallery. He is a wood advisor for The Craft
Study Centre. He was an Artist in residence at Schovenhorst in the
Netherlands for the ‘Boom en Beeld’ wood carving festival in 2003. He was
resident at the Jam Factory in Adelaide in 2007 where he developed the
‘Splash stool.
He has shown at ‘Chelsea’ Craft Fair, Origin, Made and Art in Action.