Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Barrington Watson spent much of his life capturing the spirit and stories of his homeland, becoming one of the most influential post-Independence artists of his generation. But Watson was not only a pioneering painter; he was also the first Black student to study at the Royal College of Art. It’s a milestone that is both cause for celebration (one Watson himself took great pride in) and a moment of reflection, given that the College had already been open for more than a century before his arrival. Today, his legacy continues to resonate across the institution; inspiring the next generation of students and staff, and shaping conversations around representation and art education. The artists’ great talent is evident in the hundreds of paintings he produced over the years, but Watson firmly believed that raw skill could only get one so far. He playfully referred to the hard graft required to become one of the greats as “99% sweat”, meaning that relying on his artistic gift (which was clear from an early age) was out of the question. He knew that formal training at art school was essential if he was to progress as he knew he could. A man with a camera round his neck stands in front a big oil painting. A Jamaican student stands in Barrington Watson's studio as part of the Creative Futures event “When I left school I had chosen to become an artist but my father said: ‘No that will not be.’ Because of the idea that art is for time wasters,” Watson said in an interview to the Caribbean Broadcasting Union before his death in 2016. “But when I left school my focus was to get out of here, get to England and find an art school to study art. So I worked at a few places, saved up enough money to get on a boat, a banana boat and I spent 17 days at sea until I got to England.”After a rocky start (he was informed on arrival that a young Jamaican friend he was supposed to stay with had passed away), he “looked at life” and got himself on his feet independently. Within a week he had found a place to live and got a few different jobs, all the while keeping his goal of studying art as the focus. He soon made contacts in the creative fields and was recommended to apply for the Royal College of Art, after showing his work to a tutor there.Watson arrived at the College’s office without a scholarship confirmed, but such was the standard of his portfolio that the administrator told him on the spot: “I'm going to put pen to paper. And I'm not going to ask, I'm going to tell the Jamaican Ministry of Culture that this is a must.” The British Council supported his studies for the first year of his Painting MA, and the Jamaican government stepped in for the following two years.A young man stands by an artist's easel.PHOTO CREDIT: RCA
