Barry Rich is a Vancouver men's health physician with a penchant for talking about himself in the third person. He recently began to garner no large measure of critical acclaim as a watercolorist and folksinger as well. His paintings are said to embody a distinctively calm excitement with an intriguingly familiar spirituality.

He began painting landscapes in 1995 when he received a Father's Day gift of watercolor paints and paper. Many of his earliest efforts can still be seen in Burns Bog and various Vancouver other landfill sites to this very day.

The earliest works consist mainly of trees, mountains, lakes and cabins, but the gradual broadening of content, to include not only sunsets, barns, other agrarian out-buildings and cabins, but not to mention, the occasional bungalow. This has been described as a virtual watershed in the course of his artistic development.

In the series of sepia-tone watercolor pencils, quaintly referred to as Rich’s “Brown Period”, one can detect the Eastern influence of a medical career that began in the Fraser Valley some twenty-four years ago.

In 1999 Dr. Rich donated a large print to the Library at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC. When the College and Library moved to new quarters in the spring of 2003, the print was hung in the lobby, albeit at the end of the long hallway leading to the emergency exit. Within two months the piece was stolen, right off the wall. The deed was captured on video surveillance, so if anyone reading this recalls seeing a young man in a hooded sweatshirt and a baseball cap, with an intelligent look and a keen eye, carrying a large framed print of trees, in the vicinity of Cambie and Robson in June of 2003, they are requested to call the Vancouver Police immediately.

Rich hopes to be in a position to post a video loop of the surveillance tape on this site in the near future, but meanwhile, the obvious comparison to the Great Masters has almost gone without saying by all but the most sophisticated of art lovers and critics.

You are welcome to browse the gallery at your leisure, but please, do us the honor of completing the feedback form before you log off and tell us which are your favourites.

If you would like to purchase greeting cards or framed prints of any of these images please let us know. They will soon be available, with proceeds in support of the BC Men's Health Foundation.

You may also want to revisit this site soon, as many more paintings will be added to the display in the next few weeks.

Enjoy!