Printmaker Barbara Leighton was born Barbara Mary Harvey in Plymouth, England, in 1909. Her family immigrated to Canada in 1912, settling in Calgary. At the age of thirteen Barbara won a medal at her school's art exhibition for her flower arrngments. Soon, her early aptitude for visual art was encouraged by teachers and family alike.

Barbara enrolled in night classes at age twenty at the Alberta Provincial Institute of Technology and Art, where she studied color woodcut printmaking, painting, and more. There she met artist and teacher Alfred "A.C." Leighton in 1930, and in 1931 they married. After their honeymoon, A.C. cofounded the Alberta Society of Artists, of which Barbara would become a member. The couple was known for their work en plain air, going on camping trips throughout the eastern Canadian wilderness to sketch and paint the dramatic landscapes. Barbara became the manager of A.C.'s career while also focusing on color woodcuts, and in 1941 she was elected to the Canadian Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers.

That same year the couple moved West, purchasing a farm in Chilliwack, British Columbia, and building a house in Crescent Beach. The stay would be short lived, as they preferred the dramatic weather and mountains of the eastern Canada, but in the few years that they lived in B.C. Barbara joined and exhibited with the B.C. Society of Fine Arts. By 1950 they had returned to Calgary.

A.C.'s health began in deteriorate in 1960 and the Leightons traveled to England to consult with experts on his condition. This proved fruitless, and they returned the following year. A.C. died in 1965. Barbara soon enrolled in school once again, now at the Alberta College of Art and Design. Now in her mid-50s, she earned her diploma in fiber and metal arts, and received two scholarships in Visual Arts. To support herself, Barbara would make "copies" of A.C.'s paintings by making color woodcut and linocut versions of his imagery, tracing the paintings and then creating blocks for each color, à la Japanese ukiyo-e prints. These works would become stand-alone pieces due to her skill in the medium, achieving a watercolor-like tonality with the blocks. She created a total of twenty-five prints in editions of around 100, and signed the works "Barleigh," a combination Barbara and Leighton to honor her late husband.

In 1970 Barbara Leighton transformed her Calgary home into a gallery of her husband's work as well as those of his contemporaries. It expanded to become the Leighton Art Centre, funded and operated by the foundation she established in 1974. It continues to operate as an art facility, gallery, and educational center with workshops, retreats, and children's art and wilderness camps.

Barbara Mary Harvey Leighton died in 1986 in Calgary, Canada.