Cindy Barratt was born and raised in Spruce Grove. A desire to travel and experience life abroad has lead her throughout the South Pacific, Greece, Italy, and Great Britain, as well as to many locations in Canada and the U.S. In 1985, Cindy married her husband, Dave, in Australia, where they lived for two years before returning to settle in Spruce Grove. From an early age, Cindy loved art and started oil-painting classes at the age of 12. In 1991, after several years of secretarial work, she decided to pursue art as a full-time career. Cindy is self-taught and has supplemented her professional development with University of Alberta extension courses and numerous workshops.

For many years, Cindy primarily worked in watercolour or acrylic with the focus of capturing flowers, their beauty and personalities—what she calls their “souls”. In recent years, she has broaden her scope of work to include landscapes, especially the flora and fauna of conservation and natural areas in the hopes that she can educate and inspire others to protect and conserve natural areas and the species that live in them. Her multi-media exhibition, A Conservation Portrait – Natural Habitats and Species, featured the Greater Coyote Lake Conservation Area, where Cindy spends the summer months enjoying nature at her country retreat. Cindy is currently developing new work featuring the Wagner Natural Area (just east of Spruce Grove) which will be exhibited at Profiles Gallery in St. Albert in November 2008.

Cindy is very active in the arts community. She was instrumental in the acquisition of the Little Church Gallery, which became the home of the Allied Arts Council of Spruce Grove until their recent move into the Melcor Cultural Centre. She served as president and other executive positions with the Allied Arts Council from 1991 to 1995 and from 1997 to 1999, and continues to volunteer in various capacities. She served with the Federation of Canadian Artists, Edmonton Branch, from 1994 to 1997. From 1996 to 2000, Cindy served on the provincial council of the Alberta Society of Artists as exhibition chair and from 2005 to 2007 as a councillor-at-large. She currently serves as the Alberta Society of Artists Public Art Lecture Co-ordinator and teaches classes and workshops at Metro Continuing Education in Edmonton, the Allied Arts Council in Spruce Grove and various communities in Alberta.

Cindy's work can be found in the collections of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Alberta Treasury Branches, Saskatchewan Government Insurance, City of Regina, and the Melcor Developments Municipal Art Collection of the City of Spruce Grove, as well as many corporate and private collections. She is represented by the Spruce Grove Art Gallery, Candler Art Gallery in Camrose, Leighton Art Centre in Calgary, and the Pacif’ic Gallery in Saskatoon.