Project Description
About Laura Quinn Harris
Laura Quinn Harris is a UK artist specialising in oil portraits of people and animals. Her work has been displayed in exhibitions across the UK and abroad, including the BP Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery, London, and the Royal Society of Portrait Painters Annual Exhibition. She has been shortlisted for the Wildlife Artist of the Year and A&I Artists of the Year Awards and was a runner-up in Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year. Her sitters have included Sir Ian McKellen, Richard Dawkins and Armando Iannucci. She was also commissioned by the Royal College of Music to paint Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, whose portrait now hangs in the Britten Theatre.
Laura gained a degree in Mathematics from University College London, followed by a degree in Scientific & Natural History Illustration from Blackpool and the Fylde School of Art and Design. Here she discovered a passion for producing highly detailed images of the natural world. She enjoys focusing her attention on all the little elements that make a face unique, and builds up many translucent layers of oil paint to achieve the detail in her paintings. She undertakes commissions from all over the world and each one can take up to several months to complete.
Education:
2010 BA (Hons) Scientific & Natural History Illustration - Blackpool & the Fylde School of Art & Design
2006 Foundation Diploma in Art & Design - Winstanley College
2005 BSc (Hons) Mathematics - University College London
2020 BP Portrait Award, National Portrait Gallery, London
2020 Royal Society of Portrait Painters Annual Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London
2020 Perceptions – Contemporary British Portrait Painters, Cass Art, Islington
2020 Make It Open, Wigan Steam, Wigan
2019 RBSA Portrait Prize, RBSA Gallery, Birmingham
2018 Wigan Open, Isherwood Gallery, Wigan
2018 Birds in Art, Woodson Museum, Wisconsin
2018 DSWF Wildlife Artist of the Year, Mall Galleries, London
2018 Being Allowed to Look, Saul Hay Gallery, Manchester
2018 Lancashire Open, Chapel Gallery, Ormskirk
2018 St Helens Open, World of Glass, St Helens
2018 Shortlist, Saul Hay Gallery, Manchester
2018 Glory of Tradition, Isherwood Gallery, Wigan
2018 New Light Prize, Bowes Museum , Barnard Castle
2017 Natuurlijk Natuur, Kunstgalerie Staphorsius, Westzaan
2017 Birds in Art, Woodson Museum, Wisconsin
2017 Face to Face, Cass Art, London
2017 BP Portrait Award, National Portrait Gallery, London
2017 Exhibition of Wildlife Art, Gordale, Wirral
2017 Women in Art, Burgh House, London
2017 DSWF Wildlife Artist of the Year, Mall Galleries, London
2017 RBSA Prize, RBSA Gallery, Birmingham (People’s Choice Award Winner)
2017 The Swinley Group, Isherwood Gallery, Wigan
2017 Wigan Arts Festival, Old Courts, Wigan
2017 Artists & Illustrators Artists of the Year, Mall Galleries, London
2016 Artists & Illustrators Artists of the Year, Mall Galleries, London (Art Academy Award Winner)
2016 Face Value, Collyer Bristow, London
2016 DSWF Wildlife Artist of the Year, Mall Galleries, London
2016 St Helens Open Art, World of Glass, St Helens (Best Portrait Award Winner)
2015 Wildlife Art Exhibition, Mandala Gallery, Singapore (Best Artist Award Winner)
2015 St Helens Open Art, World of Glass, St Helens (First Prize Winner)
2014 Portrait Artist of the Year Finalists, National Portrait Gallery, London
2013 National Exhibition of Wildlife Art, Gordale, Wirral
2013 St Helens Open Art, World of Glass, St Helens
2012 National Exhibition of Wildlife Art, Gordale, Wirral
2012 St Helens Open Art, World of Glass, St Helens
2011 National Exhibition of Wildlife Art, Gordale, Wirral
2010 National Exhibition of Wildlife Art, Gordale, Wirral
2009 Society of Wildlife Artists, Mall Galleries, London
2009 National Exhibition of Wildlife Art, Gordale, Wirral
2009 Marks of Nature, 5 Blenheim Crescent Gallery, London