Considering Art Podcast – Rose Electra Harris, painter and printmaker

Introduction to Rose Electra Harris

0:00Hello, Bob Chawndy here with another Considering Art podcast in which I talk to an artist about their work and something of their life. I first came across the work of my guest today, Rose Electra Harris, at this year's London Art Fair. She was commissioned by Visit Tampa Bay,

0:33the official partner of the fair, to travel to Florida to soak up the experience and respond by painting an eight-metre mural for the London venue. It was a great opportunity for a young artist in the early stages of her career. Rose was chosen because of her vividly coloured, immersive and energetic paintings that focus on nature, particularly flowers, and that have a partially abstracted, dreamlike quality. Rose is actually a self-taught painter. She studied printmaking for her BA and has just begun her MA in painting at the Royal College of Art.

Early Life and Education

1:07She won the Ingram Prize in 2024 and has several solo exhibitions already under her belt. She spoke with me from her London home. Rose Electra Harris, nice to meet you. Lovely to meet you. Electra, nice name. Your parents into Greek mythology. They must be, to be honest. But I actually think it's my dad. He just loved the name. And he wanted it to be my first name. And my mum thought it was too strong a name. So they settled

1:39on it as the middle name. Right. I not met anybody with the first name Electra, but it should be. Perhaps it'll catch on now, Rose. Your father was an antique dealer, I gather. Yes. Yeah. He dealt in antiques basically, yes, all his life. And I think he gave up his shop. He had a shop on Pimlico Road a while ago. But I think still, if you're an antique dealer, you sort of always have that in you. He kind of can't help himself.

Early Works and Inspiration

2:10And your early works were full of objects, antique objects, weren't they? Vases, chandeliers and so on. Yeah. So when I did my BA was in printmaking, which I studied at Brighton University. And I guess I took quite a long time to figure out what it was that I wanted to actually draw. And I started drawing objects that were around me and photographs and things from memory. And it kind of suddenly all fell into place because I was very interested in spaces and interior spaces, but also exterior

2:45spaces and some that kind of could be, you know, it was sort of ambiguous, which they were. And I sort of filling these spaces with these objects that had been around me growing up. And that, yeah, all suddenly kind of fit into place and made loads of sense. But I think it was more about the form, the form of the pieces and how they worked in spaces that I was really interested in. You decided on printmaking rather than painting. Why was that? Well, actually, I applied for painting. My foundation course was at City and Guilds.

3:19And I found painting quite intimidating. I found it very, very kind of out in the open. And I don't know, it felt a bit performative to me at the time. And I found printmaking a bit of a safe refuge. It was this room upstairs, not many people were using it. And I just loved the kind of intimacy of the craft. It felt very exciting, but steady and kind of, there was lots of processes to learn. So it felt more manageable. And I just really loved the process and the kind of the feeling of each

3:50time. I mean, etching and intaglio was sort of the process I was most drawn to. And I felt there was always this excitement when you peel the paper off through the press. It was always sort of, you didn't really quite know what was going to be there, even though it's such a kind of regulated process. It was always really exciting.

Technique and Process

4:07Did you develop a certain technique?

4:11I became very interested in hard ground. So there was a drawing element, line drawing, which is still kind of a big part of my work. And then I would use aquatint to get the kind of levels of different shading. And then sheen collet, which is layering on papers onto the plate before you put it through the press, which would create colour and pattern. So that was sort of the process that I then developed the most. And I still do now, actually. Can you, you still print, do you?

4:44Yeah, yeah, yeah. I love it. Especially now with my painting, I find it a really good sort of grounding process to do. And it takes me away from the big scale, expressive works. And I've become kind of a bit more ordered. I find it kind of meditative. I use a studio in Stockwell called House Print that I've used for years. And it's a lovely little studio. So why did you stop printing to take up painting?

5:12It was kind of a bunch of things, actually. The first thing was, it was generally just a practical thing. It was in COVID. So I couldn't actually use the studios anymore. They were all closed. And I wanted to obviously continue making work. And I'd also had this kind of growing urge to paint. I started working on paper with sort of inks and doing drawings. And I've always, I think, yeah, the appeal to paper is kind of, I love paper, especially because of printmaking.

5:46But I wanted to, yeah, just have a bit more freedom. And I'd actually done this project just before COVID, which was, I did a live painting at a Bonham's auction event. And it was about three meters by, it was about five meters long by two meters high or something. And I had to do it live during the, where people were around. And I just really loved it. I didn't want to talk to anyone. So I was really engaged in making the work. It kind of gave me this bit of this confidence that

6:17I could do it. Well, that's interesting, because you said that you were intimidated earlier by the size. And now you're going full length into large scale. Yeah, I'm quite an expressive person. And I think the feeling of painting didn't go, wanting to paint hadn't gone away. But I think maybe it was a confidence thing. I felt like also because of the privacy that I, or the time that I had during COVID, where I just felt like I had this time where I could experiment with it on my own and not have to show anyone and it didn't have to

6:49be a thing. And I could just sort of take that time to, to go for it really. And, and, and I loved it. I really loved it. Only a year after you graduated, you create an artwork for shrimps brand at London Fashion Week, didn't you? How did you get that gig? Um, I got that gig because I had met Hannah, who's the founder, um, a few times through friends

7:21and, um, she'd seen my work and I think just really loved the, she liked the kind of interior, the colorful approach to interiors and space. And I think that was sort of her direction for that. That's that season that she was showing. Um, so she has to have an, to have an early success like that, Rose, did that help relieve any doubts you might've had about making art for a living?

7:47Um, it's such an interesting one because even now I, I, I have doubts and, you know, confidence issues and, you know, it's an ongoing thing. But, um, I think the thing that helped me was I applied for a residency when I was at Brighton for when I was, had finished, it was kind of the autumn after I, my degree show, uh, at a screen printing studio in London called Print Club London. And they were advertising for this residency at the studio and I applied for it and got the residency.

8:24And so I had something to kind of go straight into after graduation. And I was learning, I hadn't, I hadn't actually done much screen printing on my BA. So it was quite like an exciting thing where I could, you know, I was learning a new process and I was around other artists and I was in London and it was, it was a challenge, but it was really exciting. And then they also put their work on the, they have an online platform. So they would put the work that I made onto that and it started selling. And I think that was a boost and I just continued to do it basically. And I think that

8:55kept me going. And obviously the shrimp thing was a, was a huge encouragement as well. So it's sort of these little things that happen that kind of just keep you going really.

Transition to Painting

9:04Yeah. Uh, so anyway, lockdown happened and you decided to pick up your paintbrushes. Um, you're self-taught, aren't you? Did you look at lots of other artists for inspiration? Yeah. Yes. Um, Matisse has, has, has always been a big inspiration and continues to be so now, even on my, um, MA. I've always turned to him for color and I just, there's something I studied history of art when I was at school. So I was introduced to him when I was a lot younger.

9:39I was looking at a lot of kind of, yeah, the 20th century painters. I don't know. I, I, I didn't, yeah, I think it's funny. I'm thinking back to that time, um, compared to now. I collect a lot of art, you know, paint like art books from exhibitions. I go to a lot of exhibitions and I think it was just very instinctive really. And I think I was letting go of this order that I'd formed in printmaking. I was, I was very kind of instinctive in my painting. And I-

10:11So you're freeing yourself, were you? Yeah. Yeah. And COVID, as we all know, and lockdown was when nature took a deep breath. Um, and then nature has clearly inspired you. Flowers always important for you, weren't they? Hmm. I think that there was an element of being around nature at that time was really important. And I really wanted to kind of focus on that as a release. It just, it just felt so important in the everyday life to paying attention to the small things and the things that we can overlook.

10:45I also was very fortunate that I was not in London for the first, um, lockdown. I was with my parents who live out of London. And I, so that was sort of an abundance of nature around me. And I also wanted to draw things that were in front of me and they were changing, you know, and I loved that kind of every day that was, they've moved or there was something different. And it was very much about the form as well, um, of, of flowers. Spool forward. And you had a picture called Better Days at the flowers exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery.

11:20And you did it hugely on four canvases. Uh, what's the attraction of such a big scale? I find working small very difficult now. I love the freedom of, of the, of the scale. I love that it's bigger than me. I can move around. I can, if I, I'm really up close, it's very different obviously to then when I stand back and I see it and it, I'm not so aware of the small things when I'm really, I don't know, when I'm very close up, I'm in that section and then I move back and it

11:52changes everything. But I think the kind of, the gestural freedom of kind of expression is really important. Um, and also the fact that it, as, as nature is bigger than you and you're sort of, you're faced with it. Um. So you've become immersed in it basically. Yes, exactly. And did you do a lot of colour experimentation? I didn't actually. Um, my use. It's all instinctive, is it? It's all instinctive. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, but I'm, I'm, I've always

12:28been okay with that. I do think over time I have created sort of a natural instinct for what colours that I like together and that work together for me, but I also go through stages. I mean, currently I've been very focused on blue, but in the past it's been pink and reds and it, it changes to kind of, I'm not sure why, but it does. Yeah. I mean, does it depend on the mood you're in, for example? I think there must be something of that in there, but I also think it can be with things

12:59I've seen, places I've been, or it could be a very simple thing. Um, you know, like on the way to the studio, seeing a flower, it could be a bit of architecture, it could be a poster, you know, it could just be a colour that I'm drawn to and then it kind of, I want to recreate it and then everything changes around that colour, basically.

13:19Yeah. Some artists who draw nature, they would include signs of degradation in it to reflect the environmental crisis that we're in. Is that something that's ever occurred to you? It hasn't actually. Um, I think I've always wanted the nature that I create to be about life and to be about sort of joyful aspects of it. I mean, I go, I kind of do go back

13:52and forth about this. Um, you know, what I want my work to be and what I want people to feel. And it's not something I really think about when I'm making it, but I do afterwards think about it. I like the wildness of nature. And I think, you know, I used to paint flowers in vases and then I, I wanted to move away from that. So you were kind of as if you were within it. Um, so you're right, you're placed right in the middle of it. So yeah, I think, I think that's always been more interesting to me at this time. Um, what sort of materials do you use, Rose?

14:27I use, I use an abundance of materials actually, because I feel materiality is, it's really important. I'm, I love, I think this is the thing about painting that I love is the materials of painting and they all offer such different things. And I think I act differently with different materials. So I, I use, um, charcoal and pastel to draw, um, the line drawings, which I do very, I'm, I'm quite fast when I do these line drawings. And then I use ink and I use acrylic

14:59and, and then I go to oil and sort of oil sticks. I did use spray paint for a few years, but I've sort of stopped using that partly because I sort of, there was something about the material that I stopped enjoying and also the kind of, that it not being, yeah, not, not being great for the environment as well. Um, it's a bit toxic in that. Yeah. And, and when you start a painting, you're looking presumably to find a, a balance of color shapes, you know,

15:31some sort of harmony. How do you start?

15:35So I always start with the drawing, which would be the drawing is more about form. So I think deep down, I'm really a formalist painter. I think I'm very interested in, in, you know, shape and, and line and color. So it can be a drawing from something I've seen. I take a lot of photographs just when I'm, you know, it can be when I'm walking to the tube or it doesn't have to be like a go out on an expedition to take photographs. It's very much just everyday things that I'm drawn to. And then I start with a very quick, I sort of just pick something

16:10instinctively and then go with it and do a drawing. And then from there, it kind of, it constantly changes. And I add, you know, nowadays when I start, I use acrylic, so it's kind of dries quickly and I can change things very quickly at the beginning. And then I start to kind of, when I bring in the oil, that's when everything I have to react very, you know, to different, different things. And that's what kind of keeps the painting going. Um, every, every action sort of informs the next one. And then, yeah, my paintings aren't planned,

16:46which I really love, but I also sometimes think, oh, would it be more, would it be nice to have a plan and I could, it might make my life easier, but I also kind of like the challenge that everyone, every painting offers. You're not a representational painter anymore. Presumably you're painting what you feel. Yeah. And how do those feelings vary? Do you get a feeling after you've painted or do you have that feeling before and then respond with paint? So I think I mostly have it before and during. My way of painting is I work very fast, but in sort

17:27of stints, I kind of pick up the paintbrush, do something really quickly, and then I put it down and then I sit and look at it for a long time. And it can be half an hour, it could be a day, it could be two days, you know, and then, and then again, I do that sort of process all over again. I easily can overthink things. And especially at the moment when I'm studying my master's, I've been very aware of it, but when I'm painting and I'm feeling confident and going with my gut, that is like the best feeling. I don't, it's not that I paint when I'm, you know, I paint when I'm sad

18:02or when I'm happy. I think it's more about the gesture and the energy and I'm releasing energy when I paint really. Do you set a mood some ways, music or podcasts?

18:16I find I can't listen to podcasts when I paint because I get distracted. I found quite irritating, quite annoying sometimes because I quite, I love listening to podcasts. Yeah, I go between the different types of music, depends on my energy. It's more about energy than mood really, I'd say. You say that you sometimes leave paintings. I saw on Instagram that you were resurrecting a painting that you hadn't touched in eight months. Is that, is that normal?

18:46That was a special case. That painting was, I kind of got to the good stage too quickly and I wasn't happy that it had happened so fast because I wanted to be with it longer. What was wrong with it then? There wasn't anything. It was more like, I knew it wasn't finished, but I didn't have a clear like idea of what to do, but I knew I needed to just let it be for a bit and then it kind of ended up being

19:20eight months. And I had it in my studio, looked like out the whole time. So I was sort of, it was, it was there and it was kind of taunting me a bit, but it was. So every day you'd come into the studio, you'd see it out of the corner of your eye or something. Yeah. Well, I thought it was, it would be good because it was kind of, sometimes when I'm just, if it's there, it's sort of informing me somehow. But I think out of, in the end, it was out of desperation that I kind of decided I can't do this anymore. I've got to do something. But what was it about, I'm intrigued as to what was it about it that, that you couldn't carry on

19:54with it for a while?

19:59I think it's often, if you, if you make marks that you like too early on, it can kind of inhibit how you act around them. It kind of make, inhibits like what you do next, because you can become a bit pressure. You can become precious. And I hate that feeling. It sort of goes against everything that I feel about my paintings, but it's sort of, I don't know. I just became a bit precious about it and that that really frustrated me. And then I, I still have this approach where I need to

20:31experience the painting for a long time. If it happens too quickly, it's not enjoyable. It doesn't feel like I've done anything. It kind of, it feels like I've cheated, but I work very fast. So it's quite a kind of different, it's quite a difficult thing to balance really. I'm trying to, I'm still trying to get to the bottom of it now, to be honest, on my, on my, where I'm at my studies now. And did you eventually finish it in a, a way that felt satisfactory to you? Yes. Yes. And I, I really, I still love this painting. I often, I can make a painting and

21:05look back at it years later and in some ways fallen out of love with it, but I do still love this work. And it's, it's currently hanging in the Rosewood Hotel where I've, I've got some work showing there. I think it was one of the paintings that's like led me to where I am now. So maybe it was this kind of in-between period that I was battling through. And a lot, I mean, I describe a lot of my paintings as kind of battles really, because I don't always enjoy the making of them. You know, it's not like I'm painting and loving every moment of

21:38it. I find it really difficult. But when you have those moments where you get past the difficult, that's like what makes you carry on doing it. And it's, it's like such an exciting feeling.

Travel and Inspiration

21:50Rose, let's talk about travel. You've done quite a lot of traveling and it's clearly inspired your work. So you've been to India, for example, which is, of course, is full of colour. Hmm. Yeah. India is a really special place for me. I've spent about six months there when I was 18. And then I went back the year later for a month. And then I actually went in 2024 with my dad who'd never been. And we had a trip together. So I've been really lucky to

22:22do that. It's just such a kind of vibrant place. I just love, I love the way everyone, the people are. And I just, I find it, yeah, I find it very inspiring as a place and obviously the colour and nature and as the other people actually as well. But I worked in a national park in central India for a long time. So I was surrounded by nature for four months. And that's, that's been a continuous and, you know, that's informed my work for a long time and still does. And I go back to photographs I've taken and even sketches that I made there.

22:56I still go back to them now. And you did a residency in Mexico, didn't you, as well? Yes. Yes. At Joss Gallery. So I did that in 2024. Mexico, again, in a very different way, has inspired my work. Again, the colour and, and, and the nature, but also the architecture has inspired me a lot. But I, so I went out for this residency at the gallery. There was

23:26a studio attached to the gallery and I had a, I worked for a month and I, like, I couldn't stop painting. It was like, it kind of like poured out of me and I made 12 big paintings in a month, which was sort of unheard of, crazy for me to do. But I had been to Mexico a few years before and had the, for, for kind of five months I'd been there and had all the intention of making loads of work. And I couldn't make anything when I was there at that time. I felt like I bought a portfolio to take all my work back when I'd finished and I'd, and

24:00I just wanted to be outside the whole time and I didn't want to be drawing. I just wanted to kind of be soaking it in and living, living there. And then when I came back, I, it was when it kind of all came out of me. So it's funny how that kind of, then the second time I went back, I couldn't stop making one when I was there. So I kind of, you never really know how it's going to affect you, but it just changes your perspective and can make you look at things. Yeah. Look at things differently, which I find really exciting. You were involved with the London Art Fair, weren't you? Because their sponsors,

24:34Visit Tampa Bay, commissioned you, didn't they, to make a mural? And you went to Florida, as part of that. Tell me what that experience was like. Yeah, it was, it was something that I never thought I would do. Our mutual friend, Hannah Payne, put me forward for the prize because I'd worked with her at the London Art Fair the year before with the Ingram Art Prize that I'd been a finalist for. And she put me forward and then called me to tell me that I'd won the prize. So I was, could I go to Tampa before, before

25:09Christmas and it was sort of October time. I was like, I, yeah, I couldn't get my head around it at all, but it was, it was amazing actually. And again, that thing of kind of going somewhere you never thought you'd go to. I didn't know a huge amount about it. And in a way I didn't want to know a huge amount about it before going. Cause I kind of liked the feeling of, of being surprised and learning about a place when you're there. But again, it was a very colorful, um, artistic, but also full of history, a rich history as

25:41a place. And I, yeah, again, that things that you never think are going to inspire you or enter into your work. They sort of do, they appear, things appear and it's, it's, um. Was that new shapes, patterns? Yeah, it's the architecture. I was very drawn to the architecture there. Um, you know, they've got a very multicultural history in Tampa of kind of Cuban, Spanish, German. So the architecture was the thing for me that really stood out. And my work has become a bit more about architecture and structures. So it sort of helped inform that, but it was, it was a

26:15fantastic experience and, uh, it was really, really lovely to go there. Was the light, the light very different? Yes. Yes. Um, it was, it was, it was sort of that, not that I know America, um, or, you know, Florida well, but I think it has that kind of, that light, you know, beauty. I mean, it's obviously beautiful weather, but like the light through the trees and the kind of the color on the walls and the brick, there's amazing, beautiful brick and lots of shadows moving around. I don't know. There was something like that that really stood out for me.

26:48You had to paint this mural and you did it the day before it opened, didn't you? The London Art Fair. Was that a pressure or did you love that? Um, I had the, the fair opened on Tuesday and I had access from Saturday. So I had three days to make the mural and I think it was nine meters by long by three meters high. Um, so it was a challenge. A feat of athleticism, I should imagine. Yeah. I mean, it was, I kind of forgot how big it was. I had gone to see it, you know,

27:23in about November time. And then it was like, Oh yeah, I've got that. I know what it is. And then by January I went back and I was like, God, it's, it is a lot bigger than I remembered. But again, I, it's like the challenge you kind of, I feel like I always know I can do it, but it's sort of how well I can do it. And it's, um, I love the challenge. I think obviously artists that didn't like working really under pressure, but there was something about it that I found I really liked the pressure of it. Um, and actually I drew it, I had, I'd made sketches, but I drew it all kind of freehand before painting it on the wall. And I'd never

27:58done anything like that before. So it was, it was kind of every time I did something, I thought, Oh, I can, I can actually, I can do this. I can kind of, it's working. I'll keep on doing it. And it kind of gave me the, and somehow I managed to finish it in time.

28:10How do you find life as an artist? It's quite a lonely profession, isn't it? But some artists love the loneliness, others a bit guilty because they're ignoring other things going on around them. How do you find it?

Life as an Artist

28:26I, I find it both those things. I mean, I've had my own studio for about six years. And it's such a luxury to have, to be honest, I mean, to have your own space that is completely your own. You can do what you want and you feel like you're really shut off from the world, but you kind of, I feel like I need to be, to make work. But I also, I get a lot of my energy from other people. So it's sort of a weird contradiction. I find I have, I do find

29:01it lonely. Um, and actually I'm, I'm doing a, as I've mentioned, I'm doing a master's at the moment at the Royal College. Um. Well, that means that you'll be with lots of other artists, presumably. I'm surrounded by people and I'm sharing a studio in my space. It's a lot smaller than I've had before. And, um, I'm, I'm absolutely loving it. I love being around people. And I'm, I, the part that I think maybe the best thing, one of the best things from the course is the people and making new friends. And I guess having people, you can just talk about art and not feel

29:32guilty or feel like they're not, you know, a lot of my other friends are very supportive, but they don't, you know, there's, there's a difference in how you can talk about it. And do you go into the meaning behind what painting is and what it represents?

29:47I'm, I'm more so, um, I don't know. I, I, I, I sometimes struggle to kind of go there, but I'm trying to more, I think in so many ways until recently, I've been just doing it and kind of surprised that I, you know, it's like a sort of mixture of surprise and knowing that you're doing what you need to do and it's going, it's okay. But just sort of the fact that I was able to do it and can't continue to each year was sort of, I was just going with that feeling. And now I'm sort of more thinking about what it means and,

30:19and why it's important. And I don't know if I could do anything else really. I never, I never thought I would be an artist when I was younger. You know, it wasn't like something that I've, dreamt of doing. It was just the thing that I love doing. And I, I could do the best out of anything at school. So it was sort of, it's always felt like the natural thing, but I never thought I would be an artist. And so it's sometimes when you think about it, it is, it's surprising. And doing your MA, are you able then to test certain ideas that you have with other people?

30:53Yeah. Yeah. Very much so. Um, I actually had a period from about January last year until my master's where I was really struggling. My master's started in September. So I had quite a long time of really kind of, you know, going over what I, what I was doing and why and why it mattered and what it meant. And in a way it's, it's a really good thing, but it can also kind of unravel you. And I, I became, yeah, I became quite sort of stuck, not moving forward, not

31:25moving backward and not, not really understanding what it was, what I was doing in the first place. And that was really difficult. So being, I've kind of went into my master's thinking, oh, this is going to, I'm going to figure it all out. And I'm, I'm still figuring it out now. You know, I'm still thinking, why am I interested in this? Why do I use this color? There's a lot, I'm, I'm reading this book by Roy Oxlade at the moment called Art and Instinct. So I'm very interested in kind of what instinct means in art and where that comes from. And, you know, it comes from somewhere, but like.

31:56It comes from your soul. It comes from my soul. Um, exactly. But it's like, it's, it's sort of a bizarre situation to really, when you really go into it, but it's, you know, I'm very, I'm very interested in the chance when you're working, you know, mistakes happen and what that means and how you work with it and what, how that makes a painting more exciting. So it's this mixture of being very engaged, but also allowing mistakes to happen and instinct to take over, but then

32:28also bringing in the element of reason and why things happen. And it's, it's a kind of constant contradiction, but you need to, I need to sort of figure it out. Well, it'd be very interesting to see if it makes any difference to your paintings once you restart after the MA. Rose, thanks so much for talking so eloquently about your art. And, uh, I can see it's a sort of a struggle for you, but one that ends up in, in, in joy,

32:58I think. Oh, um, thank you. Please do, um, come to the degree show in June because hopefully I would have figured it out by then.

33:08Okay. Thanks very much indeed. Bye.

33:12Rose Electra Harris there on the challenges and highs from an early career as an artist. One destined, I'm sure for more success. Thanks for listening to Rose. Join me again after the Easter break.

33:36Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.

34:04Bye.