New art rises from studio's ashes

All it took was a mosquito coil to destroy 20 years of Lee Barker's prized artwork.

Lee Barker - Artist of Burnt Offerings exhibit.

ALL it took was a mosquito coil to destroy 20 years of Lee Barker's prized artwork.

But the South Burnett artist is determined to move on from the devastation through his new exhibition, Burnt Offerings.

The fire broke out in Mr Barker's art studio while he prepared for his first ever exhibition in January 2017.

He had burnt a coil to keep the mosquitos on his property at bay.

"My studio is not screened and the mozzies love it,” Mr Barker said.

"The day of the fire I was burning one. I'd been working in my studio to prepare for my first expo in February.

"All of my art works were lined up and ready to go when I got a phone call.”

The service is best on his front veranda.

"I left the studio and was gone for a couple of hours,” Mr Barker said.

"When I got back there was smoke coming out of the studio roof.

"The mozzie coil had blown over and smouldered against an encaustic (wax painting). The fire burnt the canvas based art ... and the smoke destroyed the rest.

"Nothing was salvageable.”

Mr Barker lost more than 100 artworks in the fire, which he had created over two decades.

"I had an emotional attachment to them... now they're gone,” Mr Barker said.

"I felt devastated.”

Mr Barker has since returned to his art.

His new exhibition is called Burnt Offerings and is a scene for what survived the fire.

"I couldn't avoid the fire. In my studio I still had that sickly burnt smoky smell,” Mr Barker said.

Through creating Burnt Offerings Mr Barker has discovered his love for fire.

"I do love fires. I have a huge respect for them,” Mr Barker said.

"Fire is fascinating, it has a very strong cleansing affect.

"If you have a part of your life that you want to leave behind, then you burn any of that. Fire enables you to leave it behind and move forward.

"You can do that in your mind. If you have painful memories you can leave those behind.

"Fire is just a more literal process of cleaning.”

Mr Barker said he was driven to create more art since the fire.

"Fire is a part of a natural cycle and you learn to live with it on the land ... farmers use it to burn and start again all the time,” Mr Barker said.

"Of course I'm sad. I can never share my memories of those works with anyone.

"I told myself I can do this again. I can create more art whenever I want.

"Creating Burnt Offerings was sort of like drawing a line in the sand, stepping away and starting all over again.”

Mr Barker's exhibition opens to the public on Friday, March 2, after 6pm at the Wondai Regional Art Gallery.