Roderic Westwood Barrett was born in Colchester, Essex, in 1920, the younger brother of the acclaimed sculptor Oliver O’Connor Barrett (1908-1987). Unlike his brother, who was mostly self-taught, Barrett began his artistic studies at the Central School of Art and Design in 1936 for four years until 1940. There he learnt the craft of wood engraving under the renowned teacher and engraver John Farleigh (1900-1965), as well as being taught by Bernard Meninsky (1891-1950) and William Roberts (1895-1980). He then gradually switched from engravings to oil painting.
During World War II, Barrett became a conscientious objector, but unlike his father who had been jailed during the First World War for the same reason, he was exempted from active service (1). After the war with his wife, Lorna Blackmore, whom he had married in 1943, he moved to Colchester as a practicing artist. His teaching career, which began at the Central School, London (1947-1968), continued successfully, and he was invited to teach at the Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, USA, during 1957 and 1958. He then obtained another part-time teaching post at the Royal Academy Schools, London, where he tutored for nearly three decades between 1968 and 1996.
During his time teaching in London, Roderic Barrett also contributed to the Arts of his hometown, succeeding Cedric Morris (q.v.) as the president of Colchester Arts Society, a position he held from 1982 until his death in 2000. He had been a founder member of the Society, along with Henry Collins (q.v.), Arthur Lett-Haines (q.v.), John Nash (q.v.) and Cedric Morris (q.v.), and was made an honorary member in 1988. He exhibited in the first Colchester Art Society exhibition (Prodigal Son) in 1946 and had major exhibitions at the Minories in 1962, 1973, 1982, 1984 and 2006. He was also a trustee of the Colchester and District Visual Art Trust for five years from 1993 to 1997.
The Victor Batte Lay Foundation owns a painting by Roderic Barrett entitled Round Table and Three Chairs, painted four years after Moon and Cot (see link below). Colchester Art Society also owns a pencil drawing entitled Boots, Jug and Drawing [CAS 45] executed twenty years after Moon and Cot.
From 1993 to 1998 he was a trustee of the Colchester and District Visual Arts Trust and in 1997 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Essex.