Ep 134: Nicholas Harding (2019)

Talking with Painters

We lost one of our greatest artists last night. Nicholas Harding – landscape, still life and portrait painter – and my heart sank when I heard the news.

It’s early afternoon and already there are many tributes coming through in the newspapers and social media. It’s clear he will be greatly missed by many.

When I started this podcast, Nicholas Harding was on my wish list and when he agreed to an interview three years later I felt like I had hit the jackpot. I was right. He was one of the most authentic, warm and thoughtful guests I’ve interviewed and it was a privilege to meet him in his studio.

Although Nicholas was a highly acclaimed painter with sell out shows, he spoke with me in a grounded and humble way. He was humorous and not afraid to reveal moments of self doubt. He was also open about the cancer treatment he’d undergone the previous year and, in what seems typical of his nature, he was more interested in sympathising with those who were worse off than himself.

It’s this interview which was first published in 2019 that I’m posting again to the podcast. I also made a video from our conversations that day. (link below).

There is no doubt that Nicholas will be remembered as one of Australia’s most gifted painters of the 21st century. He won many major art prizes including the Archibald prize (in which he was a finalist 19 times) and a few months ago he won the Wynne prize with his painting ‘Eora’, one of the most complex, immersive landscapes that you will ever see, manipulating impasto paint to represent nature yet still retaining an astonishing abstract quality.

He was particularly interested in light; how it came through differently depending on the foliage, how it landed on the ground, how it created various kinds of shadows and how different it was to the light in England where he spent the first nine years of his life. I spoke with him at the Art Gallery of NSW shortly after he won the prize and that conversation is a video (link below) and is included in episode 127 of the podcast.

Nicholas has also been recognised for his wonderful drawings and in this episode we talked about works he made from life of well known actors while they were in theatre rehearsals and performances. Those drawings were later published in the book ‘From the Wings’.

Nicholas’ works are held in many public institutions including the National Gallery of Australia, the Art Gallery of NSW, the National Portrait gallery and the Art Gallery of South Australia.

My condolences to Nicholas’ wife Lynne and son Sam.

Nicholas was remembered by family and friends a few weeks after this episode was published and I was honoured to be asked by his wife Lynne to film the afternoon where moving tributes were made by Lynne and his son Sam as well as artists, actors and musicians who knew him well. You can see that video below.

Vale Nicholas. Thank you for making this world a more beautiful place.

Video Links

• My conversation with Nicholas in his studio (2019)
• My interview with Nicholas at the Art Gallery of NSW (2022)
• My Instagram walk through of the exhibition ‘Landscape and Birds’ at Olsen Gallery, 2020
• My YouTube video of the exhibition ‘From the Wings’ at Olsen Gallery, 2020
• My YouTube video of tributes to Nicholas Harding in Sydney

https://youtu.be/ZcDwuWpE3QI

https://youtu.be/NWezJHrg9P4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfSo9xcFrEQ&t=81s