Barber's early paintings simplify the forms and tones of landscapes to soft, almost abstract compositions of light and shadow. For Barber, this process infuses the work with a meditative quality: "I wanted to pare back to an essential, to strip away anything that was inessential." The light in these paintings is at once atmospheric light, falling upon and illuminating the land, and spiritual light.

In her more recent work, Barber entwines an abstract set of gestural marks with calligraphic letterforms to create representations of thoughts, forming entangled structures that are curling and complex, delicate and dense. Thoughts, these works suggest, are like intricate knots, their logic fine but elusive.