Laura Quinn Harris
Laura Quinn Harris (b. 1984) is a portrait and animal artist, living and working in the North West of England. Her work has been displayed in numerous exhibitions across the UK and abroad, including the BP Portrait Award 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 her work features in private and public collections worldwide. She was Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year runner-up in 2014. Her sitters have included Sir Ian McKellen, Richard Dawkins and Armando Iannucci, and she was 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 (2005), followed by a Scientific & Natural History Illustration degree from Blackpool and the Fylde School of Art and Design (2009). Here she discovered a passion for producing highly detailed images of the natural world. After spending several years painting only animals she turned her hand to portraiture, and now likes to split her time between the two. 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, often incorporating surface patterns into them as well.
Exhibitions include: BP Portrait Award, National Portrait Gallery, London (2017, 2020); Royal Society of Portrait Painters Annual Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London (2020, 2022); Portrait Artist of the Year Finalists, National Portrait Gallery, London (2014); DSWF Wildlife Artist of the Year, Mall Galleries, London (2016-18); Society of Wildlife Artists Annual Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London (2009); Birds in Art, Woodson Museum, Wisconsin (2017-18); Artists & Illustrators Artists of the Year, Mall Galleries, London (2016-17); New Light Prize, Scarborough Art Gallery and tour (2018, 2020); RBSA Prize and Portrait Prize, RBSA Gallery, Birmingham (2017, 2019); and National Exhibition of Wildlife Art, Gordale, Wirral (2010-13, 2017).
Collections include: Royal College of Music, Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, and the Museum of Wigan Life.
https://www.lauraquinnharris.com/