The Artist

Robert Hardy was born in 1952 in Salford, England. He studied painting at North Staffordshire Polytechnic and Chelsea School of Art. After postgraduate study at the University of London Institute of Education he worked for the National Theatre in London. He has travelled widely and since 1981 has lived and taught in London.

In his words ...

'The impulse to paint comes from a need to make images from my experience of the world. I want to create something permanent from the poetry and flux of everyday life.

Themes and subject matter have included journeys and voyages, travellers, places visited, entrances and doorways, landscapes and parks, figure groups and crowds and London, especially London. In all my paintings there are strong personal associations from past events and places.

To begin a painting is like starting out on a voyage of discovery and then to push further on into the unknown where things lie waiting to be discovered like an archaeologist making an important dig. The deeper one goes into these places the more one finds there to carry back into the world again.

I like to work on canvas and board in oils. I may work on a painting over a long period, often revisiting it over a number of years before it feels right. Pictures are built up slowly and carefully with several layers of paint being left to dry and harden and then being worked on again in order to achieve a subtle effect of glazing and colour.

I am fascinated by those boundaries between the world we know and recognise and the hidden world we cannot deny.'

Press

The Tablet art review March 1996
RA Magazine Summer Edition 1998
Catalogue, Robert Hardy, England and Co, October 1998
Church Times art review 16th October 1998
Church Times 16th February 2000
Times of Malta Feature Article12th August 2001
Daily Telegraph Weekend Review 28th September 2002
Secondary Education Magazine, Interview 5th October 2006