Barry McCarthy was born in Deep River, Ontario on August 11th, 1951. He received his Honours BA in Fine Art at the University of Guelph in 1975. Having been an art instructor at both the University and High School level from 1976 until 2006, the artist is now able to paint full time.

The artist follows a solid tradition of representational painting. Basing his subject matter over the years on the east coast, McCarthy developed an outstanding watercolour technique to convey the soft impressionist light.

Large scale works of light houses, old churches, boats, sea coast views and lone figures typify his paintings. In his current work, McCarthy has turned to oil painting where he has been able to adopt and refine the light and transparency that made his watercolours so memorable.