About – Harriet Pattinson

B.1990. Harriet Pattinson trained for three years in traditional portraiture, in Florence, at Charles Cecil Studios. After finishing art school, Harriet worked as a commissioned portrait artist in her London Studio. Her work was exhibited in many prestigious competitions such as the RP and the Ruth Borchard Self Portrait Prize, and is owned in private collections throughout the UK and Europe.

Harriet’s style is mainly inherited from the Cubist movement. Harriet deconstructs her subjects into their essentials, synthesise their meanings and reassemble them into exciting and engaging configurations. Having been trained traditionally in Florence, Harriet is using the aesthetic appeal of a painterly technique she learnt there to deepen the emotional power and connection to the viewer.

Her fine art techniques and materials allude to the masterpieces of key figures in art history, while new types of pigment and ideas imbue her works with a contemporary feel.

By fragmenting “the whole” she is alluding to something chaotic, broken or “rotten” under the facade. She is also seeking to convey psychological insights into people, objects and nature using multiple viewpoints, both physical and intellectual. In this way she is creating a “mutilated entity” and that nothing is completely as it seems.

Harriet’s latest series took strong inspiration from the Dutch masters of the 17th century with their colours and playful symbolism which in its own way undercuts the surface of perfection they are presenting – they had materialism vs religion, we have Instagram vs reality.

Education/Exhibitions

July 2022 “Somewhat Strange” Solo Exhibition with The Gallery Green and Stone, London
June 2022 Exhibited with Soho Revue’s collaboration with Little Scarlet Door, Soho, London
May 2022 Exhibited in The Royal Society of Portrait Painters at the Mall Galleries, London
March 2022 Exhibited in The Violet Hour’s pop-up “Still, like air”, Online
2022 Included in the Cramer and Bell Ukrainian Fundraiser, Online
2021 Exhibited in The Ruth Borchard Self-Portrait Prize, Online
2020 Christmas Sale at Haslemere Framing, Haslemere
2020 Highly commended at The Royal Society of Portrait Painters at the Mall Galleries, London
2020 Exhibited in The Royal Society of Portrait Painters at the Mall Galleries, London (http://therp.co.uk/)
2019 Finalist in ARC Salon, online
2019 Exhibited in The Ruth Borchard Self-Portrait Prize, London
2018 Fiona Lawrenson Antique and Paintings Sale, Surrey
2018 Exhibited in The Royal Society of Portrait Painters at the Mall Galleries, London
2017 Exhibited in Chelsea Arts Society Annual Exhibition, London
2017 Included in The Royal Society of Portrait Painters’ “Top Portrait Painters 2017” – http://therp.co.uk/top-portrait-painters-2017/
2017 Exhibited in The Royal Society of Portrait Painters at the Mall Galleries, London
2016 Student Exhibition at Charles H. Cecil Studios, Florence
2013-16 Charles Cecil Studios, Florence
2010-13 English Literature degree, Exeter University

For enquiries into the price of paintings, commissions, or further information please contact me