Harriet White is a contemporary realist painter living and working in Bristol, UK.

‘My paintings evolve through an instinctive interest in surface, light and pattern, and involve large scale interpretations of my own photographs. Switching between faces and botanical themes, the subject matter is unified by an implication of drama and a sense of a hazy, ambiguous narrative. The scale invites close scrutiny; the oversized flowers or a closely cropped face are enlarged to such an extent that on physically close inspection they take on a different feel, the colours and shapes touching on pure abstraction. Stepping back, they take form and it’s human nature to recognise the familiar and seek a narrative. The reflected light and imagery suggest a sense of something happening elsewhere, just out of frame; the image captured is a close crop of an implied wider picture. Uncertainty and ambiguity are key; The lighting and crop often reference cinema, but the paintings remain distanced from any kind of conclusion, maintaining a sense of something slight, dreamt or misremembered.’

She has exhibited regularly in the UK and the USA, has twice been selected for the BP Portrait Award and the Holburne Portrait Prize and was a shortlisted artist in the 2013 Threadneedle Prize for Figurative Art.