Sophie Harding
After an eleven-year stint in London she moved to Cornwall where she has carried on painting, making and sewing. She lives with her gorgeous son and beautiful whippet in a terraced cottage near the sea.
This year she has finally had time to develop her work. In the past it’s been really hard to devote enough time to painting with having a small child. Now her son is older she can concentrate more with less interruptions . Her new work is inspired by my life and and the everyday. These are all about simplicity, balance, harmony and colour. I’m passionate about colour and the feelings colour evokes. These new ones have been brewing over the years as when she looks back she's created similar paintings but they’ve lacked the vibrancy of her new ones. Although these paintings look simple they take a lot of thought especially with the harmony of colour and balance of composition.
She would paint all day long if she could but she's tied to the school run which breaks things up a bit and shortens her time. Her day starts with emails and boring things that have to be done and then orders she may have for the smaller things shI makes. As soon as this is all completed she get on with painting in her tiny box size studio. She finds her studio very restricting so she paints in the kitchen area too. She loves painting still lives and flowers so much of her work starts from a real life set up and sketches or she works from sketches that she's made when she's been out and about. She loves drawing on the beach. Windbreaks and parasols are a favourite.
Artists who she finds inspiring are Milton Avery, Mary Fedden, William Scott, Etel Adnan, Klaas Gubbels, Matisse, Deborah Tarr to name but a few.
