Pool party, lemonade, Sarah

Pool party, lemonade, Sarah, 2021, acrylic, oil, markers, charcoal on canvas, 46 x 61cm

Above all, Stef Harris’s work is about expression over storytelling. The pursuit of capturing and conveying mood and emotion over narrative.

Driven by intuition, a merging of memory and feeling, her marks and brushstrokes are informed by sensory moments from the past that are actively expressed in the present.

From the lively, vibrant and animated pieces with expressive, intricate flicks, dabs and scrawls that appear to skip and leap across the canvas, to the expansive, painterly, richly saturated works, where colour and gesture sensuously merge and swell culminating in a feeling of crescendo.

Her works conjure a diverse mixture of sensations – some calm and gentle creating an almost meditative feeling, others warm, playful, energetic and excitable.

Each work appears to possess and convey its own unique identity, exuding their own personality complete with quirks and presence. As some greet you with the warmth and familiarity of a family member, others stir the sense of passion and intensity experienced with a new lover or evoke the excitement and energy of catching up with a friend not seen in a while.

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Stef Harris is a Melbourne-based emerging artist working from her studio in Fitzroy. Born in Canberra, Australia, Stef graduated with a Bachelor of Visual Art from Deakin University in 2010. Working mostly with charcoal and paint, Stef’s work evolved from primarily figurative with a focus on portraiture to becoming increasingly concerned with expression and conveying emotion, then purely and boldly abstract from 2017 onward.

With a love for drawing from a young age, Stef attended art classes and workshops in Canberra before moving to Melbourne where she became immersed in the colour and vibrancy of the street art in Fitzroy and Collingwood where she lived, and was introduced to the world of abstract art during her studies at University.

Inspired by artists such a Cy Twombly, Franz Kline as well as the expressive use of colour of Matisse, Stef’s gestural vocabulary ranges from delicate, romantic, and almost calligraphic linework to bold, energetic, sweeping brushstrokes brought together with the expressive power of colour to convey and evoke visceral experiences, emotions and associations for the viewer.

Stef has gone on to develop her practice completing workshops in a wide variety of mediums and attending art programs in Melbourne and Sydney. Her work is held in private and corporate collections in Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra and internationally (Canada and New Zealand), and she has exhibited at various galleries across Melbourne.