Born in Yorkshire, England, John Barker was the eldest son of a bankrupt agricultural machinery dealer. He was educated at the Primitive Methodist Jubilee School, Elmfield, York. Between 1884 and 1888, he served an apprenticeship with John W. Knowles, a glass painter and church decorator.

 

During the 1890s, Barker worked as a glass painter and decorator while studying at York School of Art. He won a scholarship to the South Kensington Art School but was unable to take it up. By 1890, he was working as a potter in Leeds. In 1893, he married seventeen-year-old Maud Leach. At this time, he was recorded as a "Pottery artist of Hunslet, Leeds," employed by Maud’s uncle.

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John earned his living as a versatile professional potter, painter and art teacher, working in Leeds, Derbyshire, Burton-on-Trent and Torquay until 1924. In Torquay, he worked at the Ulla Vale Pottery before becoming designer manager at Watcombe Pottery. In 1914, he attempted to establish his own pottery in Torvale, but World War I halted the venture. He later helped set up a Devon souvenir pottery decorated in a style known as scandi. Barker gained a strong reputation as a skilled glaze technician.

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Both of Barker’s sons, Leolin (Leo) and John Leach, served in World War I and around 1922, immigrated to Western Australia with the returned servicemen’s packages. They were drawn to Narrogin by deposits of kaolin at nearby Popanyinning. The English economy remained poor in 1924, prompting John and Maud to join their sons, along with Maud’s sister Harriet and her husband Alan Bednall. The Leach girls, trained decorators, had been raised by their uncle Harold Leach at Burmantofts Pottery in Leeds. The senior Barkers arrived in Australia in 1924 and traveled to Narrogin on 24 September to join the pottery venture. However, an undeveloped market and competition from imports led to the business folding after about five years. Barker then devoted himself to painting and teaching pottery and drawing.

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In 1926 and 1927, Barker exhibited oil paintings and watercolours of Torbay and Narrogin scenes with the West Australian Society of Arts. In 1928, he held an exhibition with Muriel Southern at the Book Lover’s Library, showing watercolours of fruit, flowers and Albany landscapes, which were described as “delightful.” An unnamed critic noted, “It is Mr Barker’s evening pictures that will probably attract most attention. They possess a depth of colour not often seen in watercolour work and a marshy study done in the evening light at Albany, with bulrushes and marshy growth, is well worth seeing.” He used the letters BWS (British Watercolour Society) after his name.

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The Barkers moved to Albany in 1929 to stay with Leo and his wife, Maree. John Barker concentrated on painting, teaching and exhibiting. A typical turn-of-the-century artist, he was willing and able to undertake any type of art. His works exhibited in 1939 with the Perth Society of Artists were described as “typical studies, with dark trees, silvery light, and vapourous clouds.” John Barker died in 1943.