The Learning Curve: Simon Harris, finalist Dobell Drawing Prize #23
This month we chatted to Wednesday AM student Simon Harris (pictured above), who is a finalist in the Dobell Drawing Prize #23 which is currently on show at National Art School.
Tell us a bit about yourself:
I have been a hobby artist all my adult life, a freelance illustrator for 35 years and an illustration lecturer for 20. I'm now transitioning into becoming a full time artist - focusing on rock drawing... and sculpture.
How long have you been attending classes at Tom Bass Sculpture Studio School?
This is just my second term at TBSSS... but I feel like I've been here for years!
You recently were a finalist in the Dobell Drawing Prize #23, congratulations! Can you tell us about your work, the process of making it and what it’s meant to you, to be selected as a finalist?
Thank you! For a few years I’ve been drawing with graphite onto Arches watercolour paper, the drawings are about a metre high and they feature realistic drawings of rocks arranged to look like a human figure.
The figures are sometimes based on life drawings that I've done, sometimes they are just conjured out of my head, and in the case of my Dobell finalist drawing it was based on the Venus de Milo sculpture.
I don't draw specific rocks, so I don't work from photographs - these rocks are all in my head! I like to draw ‘old school’, I start with broad tonal marks defining the composition, then work with ever smaller pieces of graphite, following the texture of the paper to express rock details. Finally I finish with super-fine pencils and erasers adding tiny details and drama in the shadows.
As for what it’s meant to me to be a finalist… it’s mind-blowing to be an official part of the art history of Australia – to be hung alongside such accomplished artists has given me a huge insight into my work and future direction. I am inspired to push boundaries and go big with my drawings… really big!
What made you take up sculpting?
I had an epiphany last year when I suddenly realised that I was creating stone sculptures in my drawings... and that I really should be exploring real sculpture... with real stone. It’s already given me an invaluable insight into the genius of past sculptors from primitive ‘stone age’ carvers to the renaissance.
What is your favourite sculpture medium to work in?
I've barely dipped my toe in the water... but marble really inspires me, I love the physicality and the challenge of it, and the sound it makes when you strike it - music to the ears...
What inspires your practice?
A visit to Stonehenge decades ago led to a fascination with the use of stone in the human journey. The rocks seemed to have an innate power and grace, which must have been hypnotic to early humans.
So I started exploring the human condition expressed as rock compositions – drawn with graphite onto paper. I find the rock lends a dignity and purity to the figures, stripped of age, race or gender. I strive to draw on that primeval power and by exploring delicately balanced compositions there is also a hint of the vulnerability that lends such a human aspect to the rocks.
Tell us about what you’re currently working on…
At TBSSS I'm wrestling my first ever marble carving, a 20kg chunk, into a stylised face – and enjoying watching it emerge… slowly. And at home I am working on a drawing with a far more complex composition of multiple figures as well as starting to prepare my first large scale drawing, around two metres high, and that’s just the beginning!
Who are your favourite artists / sculptors?
Modigliani, the breath-taking stylisation of his paintings and sculptures. Brett Whiteley, for his gorgeous sinuous lines. Gaudi, he was literally a genius, finding structural solutions to his unfettered architectural ideas. And finally, Lucien Freud for his sumptuous glorification of unremarkable human bodies!
What do you most like about coming to Tom Bass Sculpture Studio School?
That's a hard one to narrow down. The atmosphere is relaxed but focused and productive and everyone is very happy to be there... it's my Happy Place!
Thank you Simon for chatting with us! You can see more of Simon's work via his website or Instagram.
You can also visit the Dobell Drawing Prize #23 at NAS until 10 June. For more info, click here.
Pictured above, from top: left, Simon with his marble, right: Simon's first alabaster sculpture made at TBSSS. Middle image: Dobell finalist, Primal Venus, bottom image: Simon working on Primal Venus.