The Artist in Their Studio: Sophie Barber
Fiona McKenzie Johnson, House & Garden
October 2025
As we enter her studio, located on a Hastings industrial estate conveniently close to her house, Sophie Barber hands us plastic shoe covers. Her dog Woosle - who she bought for herself as a reward for selling out an entire booth at the Paris edition of Art Basel in 2022 - is padding across the paintings that are lying face-up on the floor. Sophie, while warning us that ‘everywhere is the palette’, urges us to follow suit. It feels sacrilegious, but ‘they didn’t work’, she explains. ‘I’ll reuse them, and I like them heavy with compacted paint. They hang better.’