Artist, poet, writer, nurse and mental health campaigner who for much of her life struggled against mental illness. Born in Portsmouth, Hampshire, Barnes trained as a nurse, joined the Army as a nursing sister and served in Egypt and Palestine before returning to London hospitals. She suffered her first breakdown in 1952, was diagnosed schizophrenic, but was released and worked as a nursing tutor. A devout Catholic, she applied to study for a nursing education master’s degree at the National Catholic University, Washington, but the American Embassy in London blocked this, citing her mental condition. When that made it impossible for her to work, she had regression therapy with Joseph Berke and discovered a gift for painting, initially using her own excrement, then oils.