Art Sunday; an all round nice guy.
I sat at this computer for an hour yesterday hoping for inspiration for toady's Art Sunday, I was completely devoid of ideas and by the evening I had almost decided to re-post an old one. 
But then Rolph Harris appeared in Piers Morgan's Life Stories and I became sucked into the telling of this guys life story. The overwhelming impression left by the programme is ‘what an all round nice guy’. There are so few completely unpretentious genuinely nice people around these days but he has to be one of them. AND………..he is so multi talented.
http://www.rolfharris.com/
Rolf Harris, CBE, AM was born 30 March 1930 has been all of these things; a teenage champion swimmer, musician, singer-songwriter, composer, painter and television personality.
He was born in Perth, Western Australia and when only 16 I had his first solo exhibition in Perth, showing a collection of watercolours and a few oils of local landscapes.
All the paintings sold and he had another show the following year. He struggled at university and left after two years to enroll at a teacher training college. His first job was teaching children to swim which he loved until he fell in and was hospitalised with a mystery viral illness. During the months he was ill he made the decision to move to England and Study art.
(That goes to show how silly preconceived ideas are, I never expected his to paint snow so well)
Below MachuPicchu and a Snow scene in England.
In 1952, just before his 22nd birthday, he left Australia on a ship bound for England and enrolled as an art student at City and Guilds Art School, Kennington, South London.
He met his wife, the Welsh sculptress and jeweller Alwen Hughes, while they were both art students, they married on 1 March 1958. They have one daughter, Bindi Harris who studied art at Bristol Polytechnic and is now a painter.
He has become a household name around the world, particularly in Britain, Canada and Australia. He is known as entertainer, TV personality, singer, artist and all round Mr Nice Guy.
He is a guy universally hated by critics, and loved by the public.
On the programme last night he talked about his invite to paint the Queen to celebrate her 80th birthday. He told how the artist is allowed to choose what the Queen wears and he chose the bright turquoise dress.
While looking trough his paintings I realised this colour is exactly the same colour as the dress worn by his wife in his portrait of her. Its also the same colour he uses for the seas and rivers he paints around the world. He must be very fond of that colour.
Below, Felluci and Venice.
Above, portrait of him painting his wife with the family pert
The Queens comment on Rolphs portrait of her was that it looked ‘friendly’, and it does. He manages to make Queen Elizabeth 11 look like someones granny in her favourite turquoise dress. Now that’s an achievement.
Piers Morgan introduced him as ‘the man who makes people smile’, apparently every time Piers told someone he was interviewing Rolph Harris, their reaction was to smile, I can see why.
Below; a Wispa Gold billboard competition
