Dawn Harries is a Contemporary Landscape Painter whose work is heavily influenced by the Welsh Landscape.
Working in a variety of mediums, Harries creates unique atmospheric paintings in an impressionistic style, celebrating the British Landscape and its uplifting effects. Harries paintings evoke feelings of familiarity and warmth, nurturing a sense of place and bringing nature and sea air into your home.
Harries passion for art was evident from a very early age, and her profound love of painting has only grown deeper over the years. She is an experienced painter in lots of different mediums and is largely self-taught. For the last few years her work has been almost exclusively in oil paints, mainly because of their richness and versatility, enabling a varied application of paint that suits her impressionistic style.
Her local surroundings of South Wales provide a constant source of inspiration, and she paints small plein air pieces whenever possible to hone her observational skills.
Harries exhibits regularly in a variety of solo and group exhibitions at various venues and local galleries through the year. You can keep updated with her work and exhibition schedule by visiting her website, signing up to her mailing list, or following her social media.
Statement
I’ve been painting for many years, and in that time my work has changed, my style and techniques have grown stronger, but what has never changed is my connection with and love of the landscape. I think we all benefit from giving ourselves the opportunity to enjoy moments of calm contemplation, and I believe in the restorative power of being in nature. My hope is that my paintings bring a little bit of that restorative calm energy directly to the viewer in their homes and connects them with the landscape, nurturing a sense of place, familiarity, and warmth.
My work is heavily influenced by the Welsh landscape. It’s where I live, and there’s an abundance of inspiring corners that I’ll never tire of painting.
Most recently I’ve been working on paintings of trees and their interaction with sunlight through their canopy, and the shadows and dappled light they create. It’s often the effects of light on a subject or scene that interests me, and it delights me when I capture the atmosphere I’m looking for.
Discovering plein air painting a few years ago has been a gift, and I’ve found that it’s strengthened not just my observational skills, but also my relationship with the landscapes I paint, and has ultimately improved the level of my work and my composition decisions. You tend to have to work fast when painting outside, which has been a challenge but also lots of fun, and I continue to paint en plein air whenever I can, and the Welsh weather allows!
My love of painting has intensified over the years, and I’ve used many different mediums, which all have their own advantages, but I keep finding myself pulled back to oil paints. I’ve been painting almost exclusively with oil paints for a couple of years, as I love their rich creamy texture that suits my impressionistic painting style, plus they allow me to achieve a great variety and depth of colour on the canvas.
My hope is that for each painting that finds a home, it becomes something to treasure and enjoy for years to come.