Barnes raised four children before turning her full attention to art. She studied at the Sidney Cooper School of Art, Canterbury, and at Heatherley's. In 1936 Garlick became a pupil of Walter Richard SICKERT in Thanet, Kent, and exhibited with him at Margate (Buckman). She moved to Cornwall an the outbreak of WWII, where she lived in Karenza Cottage, Hellesvean, St Ives and worked from The Loft Studio.

She was an active member of the NSA, and served on the Hanging Committee. Her interest in the arts, including those of the garden and poetry as well as painting, continued to the end of her life.  Her twin sons, both strongly interested in the history of film-making, ran a Theatre Museum in St Ives for many years, and published books on the subject of Victorian Cinema.