Laura Quinn Harris is a UK artist specialising in oil portraits of people and animals. Her work has been displayed in numerous exhibitions across the UK and abroad, including the prestigious BP Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery, and the Royal Society of Portrait Painters Annual Exhibition. She was the winner of the RBSA Prize 2022 and her work has been shortlisted for the Wildlife Artist of the Year and A&I Artists of the Year Awards. She was an invited artist on BBC1’s Extraordinary Portraits in 2022 and was a runner-up on Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year in 2014. Her sitters have included Sir Ian McKellen, Richard Dawkins and Armando Iannucci, and she was commissioned by the Royal College of Music to paint Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, whose portrait now hangs in the Britten Theatre.
Laura gained a degree in Mathematics from University College London, followed by a degree in Scientific & Natural History Illustration from Blackpool and the Fylde School of Art and Design. Here she discovered a passion for producing highly detailed images of the natural world. She enjoys focusing her attention on all the little elements that make a face unique, and builds up many translucent layers of oil paint to achieve the detail in her paintings. She undertakes commissions from all over the world and each one can take up to several months to complete.
Exhibitions
2023 - New Light Prize, Williamson Art Gallery & Museum, Birkenhead
2022 - RBSA Prize, RBSA Gallery, Birmingham
2022 - Royal Society of Portrait Painters Annual Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London
2022 - The CBPP Exhibition, The Department Store, London
2021 - Portraits in Isolation, The Old Fire Station, Oxford
2020 - BP Portrait Award, National Portrait Gallery, London
2020 - Royal Society of Portrait Painters Annual Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London
2020 - ARC Salon, Art Renewal Center
2020 - New Light Prize, Scarborough Art Gallery
2020 - Perceptions – Contemporary British Portrait Painters, Cass Art, London
2020 - Make It Open, Wigan Steam, Wigan
2019 - RBSA Portrait Prize, RBSA Gallery, Birmingham
2018 - Wigan Open, Isherwood Gallery, Wigan
2018 - Birds in Art, Woodson Museum, Wisconsin
2018 - DSWF Wildlife Artist of the Year, Mall Galleries, London
2018 - Being Allowed to Look, Saul Hay Gallery, Manchester
2018 - Lancashire Open, Chapel Gallery, Ormskirk
2018 - St Helens Open, World of Glass, St Helens
2018 - Shortlist, Saul Hay Gallery, Manchester
2018 - Glory of Tradition, Isherwood Gallery, Wigan
2018 - New Light Prize, Bowes Museum , Barnard Castle
2017 - Natuurlijk Natuur, Kunstgalerie Staphorsius, Westzaan
2017 - Birds in Art, Woodson Museum, Wisconsin
2017 - Face to Face, Cass Art, London
2017 - BP Portrait Award, National Portrait Gallery, London
2017 - Exhibition of Wildlife Art, Gordale, Wirral
2017 - Women in Art, Burgh House, London
2017 - DSWF Wildlife Artist of the Year, Mall Galleries, London
2017 - RBSA Prize, RBSA Gallery, Birmingham
2017 - The Swinley Group, Isherwood Gallery, Wigan
2017 - Wigan Arts Festival, Old Courts, Wigan
2017 - Artists & Illustrators Artists of the Year, Mall Galleries, London
2016 - Artists & Illustrators Artists of the Year, Mall Galleries, London
2016 - Face Value, Collyer Bristow, London
2016 - DSWF Wildlife Artist of the Year, Mall Galleries, London
2016 - St Helens Open Art, World of Glass, St Helens
2015 - Wildlife Art Exhibition, Mandala Gallery, Singapore
2015 - St Helens Open Art, World of Glass, St Helens
2014 - Portrait Artist of the Year Finalists, National Portrait Gallery, London
2013 - National Exhibition of Wildlife Art, Gordale, Wirral
2013 - St Helens Open Art, World of Glass, St Helens
2012 - National Exhibition of Wildlife Art, Gordale, Wirral
2012 - St Helens Open Art, World of Glass, St Helens
2011 - National Exhibition of Wildlife Art, Gordale, Wirral
2010 - National Exhibition of Wildlife Art, Gordale, Wirral
2009 - Society of Wildlife Artists, Mall Galleries, London
2009 - National Exhibition of Wildlife Art, Gordale, Wirral
2009 - Marks of Nature, 5 Blenheim Crescent Gallery, London
Awards
2022 - ING Discerning Eye Regional Prize for the North
2022 - RBSA First Prize
2017 - RBSA People’s Choice Prize
2016 - A&I Artists of the Year Art Academy Award
2016 - St Helens Open Art Best Portrait Award
2015 - Mandala Wildlife Art Exhibition Best Artist Award
2015 - St Helens Open Art First Prize
2014 - Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year Runner-Up
2013 - BBC Wildlife Artist of the Year Finalist
2010 - BBC Wildlife Artist of the Year Finalist
Collections
Royal College of Music, London, UK
Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wisconsin, USA
Museum of Wigan Life, Wigan, UK
Television
2022 - BBC1 Extraordinary Portraits
2014 - Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year
Publications
International Realism: 15th Annual ARC Salon, ACC Art Books, 2021, ISBN 978-1-78884-118-4
Portraits for NHS Heroes, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2020, ISBN 978-1-4482-1800-4
BP Portrait Award 2020, National Portrait Gallery Publications, 2020, ISBN 978-1-85514-713-3
Paint Realistic Fur, Artists & Illustrators Magazine, 2018 ISSN 1473-4729
Birds in Art 2018, Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, 2018, ISSN 1057-8110
Birds in Art 2017, Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, 2017, ISSN 1057-8110
BP Portrait Award 2017, National Portrait Gallery Publications, 2017, ISBN 978-1-85514-780-5
How to Paint a Portrait, Quadrille Publishing Ltd, 2015, ISBN 978-1-84949-652-0
A Little Book of Portraits: Beyond the Canvas, Quadrille Publishing Ltd, 2014,
ISBN 978-1-84949-576-9