Richard Harpum Paintings (Hi Res)

HIGH DEFINITION ART BY RICHARD HARPUM. I find painting to be one of my most satisfying pastimes. Although I drew and painted as a youngster, a career in the British Army followed by many years as a senior executive in business, meant that I did not start pursuing my passion again until I was in my 50s. I am so glad that I did. Although I love the Impressionists, the engineer in me means that I have a great deal of difficulty being loose in my own work. Having tried and failed, I decided to take the route of being a realist artist, and recently coined High Definition Art as my slogan. However, I am not interested in achieving photorealism. I want people to see that my pictures are paintings, and would hate the thought that someone had to take a close look to discover that one of my paintings was not a photograph. My time-consuming technique pretty much prohibits painting en plein aire, so I use photographs for reference in my studio. Consequently, I take a camera everywhere, although this drives my wife nuts! However, I deliberately avoid painting a direct copy of any of my photos. Indeed, with each new painting, I seem to do more and more enhancement, often combining a variety of references, to achieve an interesting result. First, I will often adjust the view, so as to create focal points on one or more golden ratios (1:1.613). I may also change the lighting, moving shadows and illuminated areas to maximise impact. I nearly always change the sky, using the large library of sky photos I have built up over recent years. And I often put flowers in the foreground of my landscapes to add contract and interest. Again, I use my extensive library of flower photos for this. I have deliberately avoided the temptation to focus on a common theme. I am still exploring what is possible, so paint anything that I think is interesting, be it a landscape/seascape, still life or portrait/figure. At this stage, I want to avoid being type cast as having a particular style or subject matter.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• Art
• richard harpum
• HD
• high definition
• paintings
• realism
• realist
• surrealism
• oil paintings
• still life
• landscape
• cityscape
• seascape
• watercolor
• watercolour
• prague
• utah
• flowers
• yorkshire
• italy
• spain

[Cre8iveSignWorks]

ok i might be a lil drunk ....but that really blew my mind!

that is totally awesome work!

congratulations!

im going to have to look at this again when im sober, but i know its still going to take my breath away the next time i see it.....well done richard.