Lot 29

This artwork is in good condition with no major faults to report. Well framed in a contemporary timber box frame, 112 x 117cm


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Sophie Gannon Gallery, Melbourne 2011 (label verso)
Private collection, Melbourne

Arriving in Australia from England when he was nine, Nicholas Harding was swiftly introduced to the Australian landscape and all its unique qualities. The English landscape he was so far familiar with was, in comparison, barren and limiting. His new surroundings, however, were full of lush flora, sweeping oceans and glistening sunlight.

After teaching himself to paint, Nicholas developed a particular preference and talent for thick painterly brushstrokes. In The Swell (Lilo Girl, Swim Ring and Figures) 2011 is full of sweeping horizontal strokes of thick frosting-like paint to encapsulate the deep Australian ocean. Its figures are at once immersed, while the artist and viewer seemingly watch on from a floating surf-board at the bottom. The sun's harsh rays bounce off the water's pure surface. From painting the streets of inner Sydney, to the shrubbery and beaches of the north coast of New South Wales, his lush paintings reveal his intimate familiarity with his surroundings yet an intuitive and somewhat spontaneous technique.

The vitality of his paintings have made him one of Australia's most awarded and collected contemporary artists. Since 1994 he has been a regular exhibitor in the Archibald, Wynne, Dobell, and Sulman prizes. In 2001, the first of several triumphant years, Harding won the Dobell Drawing Prize as well as the Archibald.

Olivia Fuller
Head of Art