KATHARINE LE HARDY

Katharine Le Hardy (born 1981) studied Fine Art at the University of the West of England in Bath graduating in 2003.

Since then she has regularly shown her work in London (Mall Galleries, Discerning Eye, Affordable Art Fair, Smithfield Gallery) and throughout the UK, including the Chichester Open in 2005.

In 2005 she was Highly Commended, Young Artist of the year at the Royal Institute of Oil Painters and was awarded the NADFAS young artist prize, Guggleton Gallery, Dorset. In 2006 she was runner up at the Royal Bath and West Art Scholarship prize. In January 2008 Katharine was awarded runner up in the Annual Gilchrist Fisher prize, hosted at Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London.

Katharine paints contemporary Beach scenes with surfers and people enjoying the seaside, these are painted on the South coast (Studland Bay) and also in Scotland. More recently she has painted someSouth Downs landsapes.

She says - "The coastline of the West Country is a constant source of inspiration for me. I am particularly interested in approaching this traditional subject in an interesting way by looking at different viewpoints and unusual horizon lines. I am fascinated by conveying a sense of the consistent interplay of the horizontal lines throughout the sea, sand and sky and the way in which they are broken up by the silhouettes of figures and natural forms. My interest lies in exploring the movement, quality of light and atmosphere of a place through layers of broad, confident and gestural brushmarks."

Katharine Le Hardy is also an accomplished portrait painter.