I first came across the work of Geoffrey Harrison when I saw him painting on the TV show ‘Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year’ and was quickly enamoured with his art. After following him on Instagram and having some interactions about art in general together, this appreciation has only increased and he has very graciously agreed to be interviewed by me for my website and OCA degree course.
Geoffrey is a British portrait artist who is a member of the Contemporary British Portrait Painters (CBPP) and has shown his work in numerous galleries and exhibitions. These include Royal Society of Portrait Painters’ annual exhibition at the Mall Galleries in London, ING Discerning Eye Exhibition, shortlisted for the Seqestered Art Portrait Prize, longlisted for the Jacksons Art Prize, the 2019 Royal Society of Birmingham Artists’ Portrait Award and was long-listed for the BP Portrait Award in his first year as a portrait artist in 2013.
Additionally, Geoffrey was Artist in Residence at the Pathology Museum of St Bart’s Hospital and was Leverhulme Artist in Residence at the Royal Veterinary College.
He undertakes commission work across the UK and can be found sharing his art on his website and Instagram.
There is a certain vulnerability to his self-portraits and it is refreshing to see a male artist willing to be so open about his emotions and physique in his artwork. One piece that stands out to me is a self-portrait entitled ‘Self Portrait with a Paunch’, which shows a very honest portrait in the intimate setting of a bathroom. The sunlight on the tiles and glass screen is incredibly captured, but the light on the skin of the paunch is also expertly rendered and really makes you feel the texture of the skin and notice the pose being depicted. The use of light really makes the paunch the focus of this piece. There is a slight sadness to Geoffrey’s gaze and the whole scene feels very authentic and exposed. Smaller details like the crocodile on the bath edge, or the purple spots on the flowers are intricate enough to keep your eye interested and moving around the piece and help you feel the life in the composition.
The recent self portrait from 2021 where Geoffrey stares at the viewer with tears in his eyes in incredibly powerful. I said to him recently that every time I see this painting I want to reach out and hug him! There is such open, honest vulnerability to this portrait that it is compelling and difficult to tear your eyes away. Again, the depiction of light is incredible to me and something I keep studying in the hope of internalising it for future use in my own work. This is most noticeable on his bald head and the play of light on the side of the face and in the eyebrows really show Geoffrey’s skill in capturing and depicting this light. Additionally, the light in his tearful eyes are radiant and keep you captivated to the image. This piece was selected for the 2021 Royal Society of Portrait Painters Annual exhibition and one can see why.
This piece also makes me think of the Beardy Baldy series Geoffrey has been showing on Instagram. In this series we have been witness to 100 (or so) portraits of bald and bearded men. These have been completed on Bristol board and show a wide range of facial types and expressions across the series. I hope to write a separate essay about this series in the near future as I have found this series very inspiring and it has given me lots of pointers for how to create a likeness and shading etc with pencil and board.
I have taken these images from Instagram, but the cropped format doesn’t do them justice and I strongly recommend you viewing them on Geoffrey’s website to see them in more detail.
So now, on to the interview itself. These answers have been well thought through and are very eloquently expressed. I am very grateful for the time Geoffrey has taken on these and for his support of my first forays into art in general. Enjoy.
How would you describe your art?
I’m a figurative painter. I think I mean by that, that I paint (and also draw a lot) pictures of things that hopefully end up looking a lot like they do in ‘real life’. I’m not a photographic hyper-realist or anything, but draftpersonship is important to my process and it makes my work accessible, in the first instance, and helps me convey my meaning. I make pictures of things and people, but mostly my work is about my own experience. Every portrait is to some extent a self portrait, and through the non-commission work I do, I tend to be poking around themes of masculinity, body as vessel, body ideals, ‘adultness’, and other personal shit.
What age did you start getting into art?
I’ve always done art. My parents were illustrators and my mum is still an abstract painter (though she’s a very good figurative painter too), so I grew up with drawing and painting being totally permissible means of expression. I have experimented a few times with not making art: after university, when living overseas, doing other jobs, and found it destabilising.
Did you have any formal art education and if so, where and how? If self taught, How did you learn and develop?
I sort of think all artists are self-taught regardless of what instruction they received. I went to university to do fine art printmaking as an undergraduate. I learned no drawing or painting there, but I did learn about critical thinking and studied a lot of other artists’ work. My greatest teacher for drawing and aesthetics has been my mum, but in a very non-pedagogical manner. Just osmosis. I have learned a lot from Instagram. I would like to study painting and paint in a technical manner. I think it would help me to sidestep some of the mistakes I make.
Whats your favourite medium and why?
Drawing with a pencil on paper. It’s my first love! It’s so immediate and it’s how I feel most comfortable.
What aspect of art do you struggle with most?
Composition probably. I tend to rush at things and get weak structure to my work. I’m better at this when I take my time and plan. I am a poor photographer, because I always want to get everything in frame, when I should consider cropping and using more interesting composition. I’m the same with painting.
What type of art do you enjoy creating the most? (Still life, landscape, portrait etc)
Portraits. I really love an interesting face and for my more ‘meaningful’ work, portraits are a great vehicle.
Do you struggle with balancing creativity and making art you want, with making art as something to sell or which is popular?
Sometimes. I occasionally do commissions and there can be some very dull work there, if I’m not able to convince my sitter to be imaginative, or I might just be working from a single photo, which is OK, but sometimes that resource is poor. They pay money though, and I want to build an art career! I tend to view the work I do that is self-motivated, like my Beardy Baldy drawings as just things that I want to do. When they are popular, that’s great, but it’s always about making the artwork and reaching people with it. Obviously, these things aren’t mutually exclusive.
Do you have any favourite artists and why?
There are loads of artists whose work I love. Usually their work is nothing like mine. Like Paolo Uccello or Egon Schiele. I like Sean Scully, Jasper Johns too. and some figurative painters whose work I take some inspiration from, like Jenny Saville and Kehinde Wiley or and others who are just great, like Peter Doig, Marlene Dumas, Paola Rego.
What pieces of theirs do you recommend for further exploration?
Paolo Uccello – Battle of San Romano – This is just an amazingly brilliant composition, with rhythm and a lot of counter-intuitive shapes.
Look at Marlene Dumas’ economy of mark making in all her work. How she lets things bleed and flow is very freeing and at odds with my own tight practice, but its lovely.
Look at Jenny Saville’s treatment of flesh in any of her works. Mastery of paint. She makes blood and bruises look like fruit and icecream – see Stare.
What advice would you give an artist just starting out?
Get your head down and make loads of work. Draw every day. Don’t get trapped by the idea that what you’re doing now is ‘just practicing’. Make the best work you can. Hang out with other artists. If you don’t have other commitments, like a child or a pet, commit yourself entirely to your artwork. Don’t fret about getting a gallery – just build your best body of work and show it wherever you can.
Are there any key techniques or methods you feel all artists should learn? (Perspective, anatomy etc)
Yes and no. Every art practice is different, so some things might matter, some might not. Also some things are just not interesting to some people. Anatomy of the face for portraitists can be really useful for example, but for some, its constraining and an irrelevance. It’s like the difference between method acting and non-method. Both can end up with brilliant performance, but in very different ways.
I think the ability that most artists would benefit from is not a better technique, but a better eye. If you aren’t aware of what improvements can be made, you’ll never get better. I see a lot of art (and I’m talking mostly about figurative art here) that isn’t great, but the artist seems unaware of it. They’re just looking for praise. As well as being open to criticism, and understanding where that is coming from, you also have to be a good and constructive self-critic, always striving to improve, and recognising what it is that needs to be better. I do not claim to be this person!
How do you feel about the digital v traditional art debate?
If you’re only going to consume digital and trad art on a screen, then there’s not a lot in it. I think digital art can be made with a few shortcuts, like just applying a filter or two and some splodges of colour, but it can also be painstaking and require a lot of craft, just like trad art can be like that too. The important thing is in the intention and the resultant communication between the image and the maker and the image and the viewer. When things are seen in person, it’s a different story. There’s just no comparison between the digital and the trad artefact. That said, I love Sam Taylor-Johnson’s video of the sleeping David Beckham. That’s a good example of a digital piece that makes a phenomenal physical artefact.
Do you have a favourite art gallery and museum?
I love the NPG. Obvs. And the National Gallery. The British Museum is just around the corner from where I live and is a brilliant place, full of amazing things.
Do you have any thoughts either way about the art world and social media etc?
I have found Instagram, so far, to be a brilliant way of getting my work seen and seeing other work. It’s been inspiring and make me up my game to see so many awesome artists. I have also made a lot of contacts and friends through it. I’ve made work by getting commissions via Instagram and also sold artwork directly. I say ‘so far’ because it is always at risk of collapsing under the impact of advertising and problematic algorithms. I don’t really have much of a presence on SM elsewhere apart from Facebook, but I don’t seem to have the energy for anything else.
I don’t know very much about the art world. Sometimes, I wish I knew more about it, so that I could sell more work, show in more galleries and meet more people. I’m just not in that fast stream. I just enjoy art more and more and like engaging with it in the way I do, in the slower waters. Maybe I’ll get caught in the current one day. Even though I’m in my mid 40’s, I feel like I’m still developing and improving and that my involvement in this highly meaningful and interesting realm is just getting deeper. Enough of the water analogy.
Is there anything else you’d like to share about your art or the art world in general?
Art is great, for its own sake. Also for a myriad other reasons, but mainly for its own sake.
References:
Harrison, Geoffrey (2021) https://www.geoffreyharrisonportraits.co.uk/ (accessed 30.04.21)
Harrison, Geoffrey ‘Self Portrait with Paunch’ (oil on panel) https://www.geoffreyharrisonportraits.co.uk/portraits?lightbox=dataItem-kezmyf2f (accessed 30.04.21)
Harrison, Geoffrey (2021) ‘Self Portrait’ (oil on gesso panel) https://www.geoffreyharrisonportraits.co.uk/portraits?lightbox=dataItem-km3w20qa (accessed 30.04.21)
Uccello, Paolo (1440’s) ‘Battle of San Romano’ https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/paolo-uccello-the-battle-of-san-romano (accessed 30.04.21)
Saville, Jenny (2004-05) ‘Stare’ (oil on canvas) https://www.thebroad.org/art/jenny-saville/stare (accessed 30.04.21)
https://www.instagram.com/geoffreyharrison/ (accessed 30.04.21)
https://www.facebook.com/GeoffreyHarrisonPortraits (accessed 30.04.21)
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