rolf harris R
olf Harris has fought hard to be considered a serious artist, as opposed to just another celebrity dabbler. As such, it’s a dangerous move for him to include memorabilia from his entertainment career in the biggest UK
gallery show of his work to date. Next month, a major retrospective will open at
Liverpool’s Walker Art Gallery that collects together paintings, drawings, lithographs and sculpture created throughout his life. It will also include his hand-made jade jewellery and long-lost paintings auctioned off on TV, while also acknowledging his lively public persona with the inclusion of a didgeridoo, a wobble board and more. The exhibition’s title, “Can You Tell What It Is Yet?” even alludes to his famous catchphrase. If it is a diffi cult balance to maintain, it becomes clear that this is the true essence of Rolf. You can try to compartmentalise his career but each of these creative elements are too tightly interwoven. Even his famous wobble board was an invention
inspired by his career as an artist. Rolf had applied a paint ground to a piece of hardboard for the background of a portrait, the subject of which was due to turn up at his London fl at for a sitting. Desperate for it to dry – “it was going to be like painting onto peanut butter” – he propped it up above a kerosene heater, temporarily forgetting how hot they can get. After burning his hands as he casually tested if it was dry, Rolf shook the board between two fl at palms to cool it down. “It went “bloomp bloomp blom bloop” and I thought,
‘what a wonderful sound’,” he recalls, before bursting into song. “Ba ba beep ba ba ba bop a bam bam… The fella downstairs came up and said, ‘I think a pipe’s burst in the attic – I can hear water pumping’. I said, ‘No, it’s probably this…’ and played it for him. He must have thought I was mad but it was a joyful madness and it took me round the world about seven times.” One of life’s enthusiasts, Rolf’s energy hasn’t
diminished at all, even at the age of 82. When Artists & Illustrators meets him at his London dealers, Clarendon Fine Art, he’s as extroverted and fervent as his television persona. His career has spanned the best part of 60 years – appearing on television doing everything from singing and painting, to tending to animals on BBC’s Animal Hospital. He seems to smart a bit when it’s suggested that it took time for him to be accepted as a serious artist.
Rolf has taken to painting every morning from 6am, working at
fever pitch: “I don’t get much joy out of working slower”
“I think people have found it diffi cult to reconcile the two sides of my career,” he admits. “People think you’re in showbusiness so you must be shallow, but I don’t think that’s true.” Whatever one might think of Rolf’s personality, no
one can deny the talent on show in his paintings. His bold use of colour and choice of relatable, everyday subject matter make him a master painter. Rolf’s artwork remains hugely popular. The Fine Art
Trade Guild named him ‘Best-Selling Published Artist of The Year 2011’ and his originals sell for tens of thousands of pounds. As we talk, a steady stream of potential buyers come in to peruse the walls, especially delighted that the artist himself is there. In fact, Rolf puts his enduring appeal down to the fact
TOP Self-Portrait, oil on canvas ABOVE A compulsive artist, Rolf doodled this fi gure in Martha’s sketchbook while he was being interviewed LEFT Waterlilies Inspired by Monet, oil on canvas
20 Artists & Illustrators
that he is just an ordinary guy at heart. “I try to be real in everything I do,” he says. “I am not a phoney, showbiz person who switches off the minute he is off stage. I am the same person you meet in the street and the same person you see now.” Born in 1930, Rolf has always had an affi nity with
painting and his talents were noticed from a very early age. “The drawing I always remember distinctly was a drawing of my father. I started too high up on the piece
ALL IMAGES © ROLF HARRIS
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