In Harding’s works seemingly familiar scenes are distorted, their elements manipulated such that they cannot be pinpointed in reality. Instead, they exist hazily, some bleached by light and others cast in shadow. Based in North Cornwall the rugged coastline and big skies dominate.
Harding plays with perspective using a variety of techniques. Leaves and clouds, painted with photorealistic precision, sit over freely applied washes of paint. Translucent layers expose ghostly imprints that have seeped through the canvas from the other side. Key to their creation, the paintings have often lived many lives. The canvases are repeatedly reworked, sometimes over several years, and bear the scars of being layered with paint, stripped and scraped numerous times. Centuries of erosion and deposition that have formed, and continue to shape, the coastline are mirrored in this physical working and reworking of the surface. It is this process that gives the paintings their authenticity.
There are characteristics that root Harding’s practice in Romanticism and it is notable that she cites both Caspar David Friedrich (German, 1774-1840) and Gerhard Richter (German, 1932- ) as major influences on her work. A key protagonist of the Romanticism movement, Friedrich sought to demonstrate that nature can elicit an emotional response in its viewer. The idea that landscape painting can be subversive appeals strongly to Harding. Like Richter, who in the late 1960s blended hyper realistic elements of painting with the abstraction of landscape, her process relies heavily on the use of photography of her surrounding landscape and yet she does not seek to replicate real life. Instead, she looks to her photographs for reference, inspiration and reminders, selecting the elements that most appeal and disregarding those that do not.
Harding holds a BA in Fine Art from Ruskin School of Art, Oxford University (1991-94) and an MA in painting from Falmouth (2000-03).
Education
2000-03
MA Painting, Falmouth University, Cornwall
1991-94
BA Hons Fine Art, Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, Oxford University
1990-91
Foundation, Mid Cheshire College, Cheshire
Selected Exhibitions
2025
Works on Paper 7 Blue Shop Galleries, London
‘1 Large 2 Small 10 Artists’ Candida Stevens Gallery
2024
Selected for Wells Contemporary, Wells Cathedral, Somerset
‘As if by Osmosis’ Candida Stevens Gallery
2023
The Discerning Eye, selected by Peju Oshin, Mall Galleries, London
‘When Feeling Out of Sight’ Candida Stevens Gallery, Cromwell House, London
2022
‘Edge of Day’ Candida Stevens Gallery, Chichester, West Sussex
‘Water and Ways’ Candida Stevens Gallery, Chichester, West Sussex
2021
‘Being with Trees’ The Arborealists, The Bermondsey Project Space, London
‘Being with Trees’ The Arborealists, Gustavo Bacarisas Galleria, Gibralta
‘Weathering the Storm’ Candida Stevens Gallery, Chichester, West Sussex
‘Wider than the Sky, Deeper than the sea’ The Stratford Gallery, Gloucestershire
‘Painted Postcards’ Newlyn Art Gallery, Cornwall
‘The Top 100’ The Auction Collective, The Department Store, Brixton, London
Livingstone St Ives, Cornwall
2020
The Arborealists at The National Memorial Arboretum, Staffordshire
‘Postcards from the edge’ The Byre Gallery, Cornwall
Cor Gallery, Falmouth, Cornwall
‘Ocean Anthology’ The Stratford Gallery, Gloucestershire
‘Can you see the sea’? Livingstone St Ives, Cornwall
The Art Buyer, Upstart Gallery, London
2019
‘Breath’ The Stratford Gallery, Stratford upon Avon ‘Where the land lies’ The Byre Gallery, Cornwall
The Princes Trust Auction, Highgrove, Gloucestershire
The Arborealists at The Collegiale Sainte-Croix de Loudun, France
‘The Spring Auction’ The Auction Collective, Menier Gallery, London
‘Spring’ Cornwall Contemporary, Penzance, Cornwall
Far & Wild Gallery, Perranporth, Cornwall
Axel Arts, Bath
2018
‘Winter at The Byre’ The Icing on the Cake
‘Winter Exhibition’ Cornwall Contemporary Gallery
Far & Wild Gallery, Perranporth, Cornwall
The Arborealists at St Ives Society of Artists, St Ives Cornwall
Artwave West Gallery, Dorset
The Byre Gallery, ‘Hidden Depths’
The Arborealists with Paul Nash at Black Swan Arts, Somerset
The Arborealists at John Davies Gallery, Gloucestershire
‘Spring show’ Cornwall Contemporary Gallery
Penwith Gallery, St Ives, St Ives School of Painting tutor show
‘Spring Show’ Artwave West Gallery, Dorset
‘Winter Show’ Cornwall Contemporary Gallery, Penzance, Cornwall
2017
‘Into the Woods’ The Byre Gallery, Cornwall
‘An Everyday Intimacy’ solo, Beside the Wave, Falmouth, Cornwall
Membership to Arborealists
Winter show, Circle Contemporary, Cornwall
2016
‘Special Collection’ Badcocks at Beside the Wave, Falmouth
‘There and back again’ with Marion Taylor, Penwith Gallery, St Ives, Cornwall
‘Featured Artist’, Bath Contemporary Gallery, Bath
Denise Yapp Fine Art, Monmouth
2015
Penwith Gallery, St Ives, Cornwall
‘Cornwall Untitled, Badcocks Gallery at Beside the Wave London
2014
Hilton Fine Art Gallery, Bath
Penwith Gallery, St Ives, Cornwall
2013
‘Coast Matter’ Solo show, Heseltine Gallery, Truro
2010
NSA Double Vision, Exchange Gallery, Penzance
2007-09
Micheal Obert Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2007
‘Sun, Aloe, Rain’ Solo show, Campden Gallery, Gloucestershire
2006
Solo and mixed shows, Lemon Street Gallery, Cornwall
Winter Exhibition, Campden Gallery, Gloucestershire
2005
NSA at Thompsons The City Gallery, London
NSA critics choice, Lemon Street Gallery, Cornwall
Solo show, Lemon Street Gallery, Cornwall
Dundas Street Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland
Miami Art Fair, Florida, USA
2004
Solo and mixed shows, Lemon Street Gallery, Truro, Cornwall
Solo and mixed shows, Campden Gallery, Gloucestershire
2003
Residency, Perth International Arts Festival, Kidogo Arthouse, Perth, Australia
Goldfish Gallery, Penzance, Cornwall
Solo and mixed shows, Bishop Phillpotts Gallery, Cornwall
Shortlisted for ROSL scholarship
2002
Bishop Philpotts Gallery, Truro, Cornwall
Northcote Road Gallery, London
2001
Winter Exhibition, South West Academy of Fine and Applied Arts, Exeter, Devon
Solo exhibition, Phoenix Gallery, South West Academy of Fine and Applied Arts, Devon
Northcote Road Gallery, London
2000
Solo and mixed shows, Clapham Art Gallery, London
1999
Solo and mixed shows, Clapham Art Gallery, London
Euroart, Berlin, Germany