Kay Dawn Barton (b. 1980, Oldham) is a fine artist based in Fleetwood, working primarily in charcoal portraiture. Her practice centres on figurative work, with a particular focus on capturing emotional depth and presence through expressive mark-making. Alongside charcoal, Barton works across a range of media including soft pastel, acrylic, installation, screen printing, digital processes, and collage, allowing her to explore different approaches to representation and materiality.

Barton is best known for her evocative charcoal and pastel portraits, which aim to connect the viewer with the sitter through gesture, tone, and expression. Her work explores the subtle and often fleeting moments of human emotion, seeking to capture not only physical likeness but the internal state of the subject. Through the use of contrasting marks and layered textures, her portraits convey a sense of immediacy and psychological presence.

Her recent work has begun to explore more conceptual themes, particularly through her ongoing project The Weight of the Unseen, which focuses on women’s experiences of chronic invisible illness and the wider gender disparities within medical understanding. This shift reflects a growing interest in combining portraiture with socially engaged subject matter.

Barton has exhibited her work in a range of contexts, including solo exhibitions such as Open Studio and Soul Therapy at Blackpool School of Art in 2024. She contributed to the collaborative set design for Pomona Performance at the Old Electric Theatre in 2024, and played a key role in the curation and installation of The Corpus Project exhibition in London in 2025. More recently, her work was selected for OPEN 2026 at the Grundy Art Gallery in Blackpool, marking an important step in her engagement with professional exhibition practice. 

She continues to develop her practice through both independent and collaborative opportunities, working towards future exhibitions and expanding her presence as a practising artist.”