ABOUT HEATHER GRAHAM
Heather is a Yorkshire based artist. Her passion and innate instinct for drawing, painting and all things creative began as a child. Creativity has always been part of her life and for many years she enjoyed a creative career in a secondary school making art, displays, and exhibitions alongside promoting the arts, and nurturing artistic and creative talent by leading extra-curricular projects for pupils of all ages. Recently, Heather made the decision to focus on her own work, and is delighted to have the time and space to be able to develop her art and produce work which she hopes will give pleasure to others.
Heather has painted portraits throughout her adult life. She finds people especially fascinating to paint: “faces are full of life, light, shade, texture, mood, character, humour, sadness and many other human emotions and I love the challenge of producing a likeness which gives the viewer a real sense of the character of the sitter.”
Her recent work also includes her ‘portraits' of flowers finding that they also trigger her desire to produce a good likeness, and to evoke in the viewer that personal feeling of recognition and love for something they might have in their own garden, or have seen in a particular place that they like to visit. She loves to focus in on individual blooms, using light, shade and vibrant colours to accentuate their beauty and texture. “Gardens, and the flowers in them, contribute enormously to our well-being in today’s world, and to see a painting of a flower, or plant, that you love can instantly transport you to a place you feel relaxed and calm.”
Heather has twice been selected to exhibit portraits in the Bradford Open at Cartwright Hall Art Gallery and her portraits and other artworks hang in private collections in the UK and abroad. Her recent portrait of Claire Balding, which was completed in May 2020 in a limited time of 5 hours, was featured on Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Week.
She mainly enjoys painting in acrylic, but will also work in pastel, watercolour, and linocut print. Her paintings vary in size, but she particularly enjoys working on a large scale.
Heather accepts commissions to paint both portraits and flowers. All flower portraits on this website are for sale - please contact Heather if you wish to purchase a painting.