rory haran | fine artist

[ CV ]

Rory Haran initially completed a foundation course at the Heatherley School of Fine Art and Design, London before studying at the Charles Cecil Studios, Florence, Italy. After the general overview in the differing artistic media that the foundation course provided, Rory had the intention of furthering his studies in the field of representational painting.

In 1991 Rory moved to Italy to study with the American painter Charles Cecil, whose professed aim is to teach figurative painting with reference to the old masters. The studio is situated in a converted church close to the Porto San Frediano, a gate in the walled city of Florence. It is in these atmospheric surroundings that the students are taught to draw and paint with a technique called "sight-size". Sight-size is a portrait painting practice that was developed in the 18th century and employed by artists such as Raeburn, Lawrence and Sargeant, although the root of the technique can be found in the works of Van Dyck and Velasquez, and further back still in the Treatises of Leonardo da Vinci. This method entails placing the canvas parallel with the sitter and viewing the image from a distance, thereby enabling the artist to see his subject as a whole. The studio also provides grounding in the preparatory side of oil painting, where first hand research into traditional methods and materials aid the student in understanding the "practical language" of oil painting. Since completing his studies in 1996, Rory has been based in South London, yet still maintains a close working relationship with the studio. He has been working on portrait commissions and still life paintings in the studio, whilst also regularly travelling abroad on landscape painting trips with other artists. Here he has sought to capture the visual impression and identity of each locale.

Furthermore Rory has been developing work of a more imaginative and contemplative nature in the studio in the form of textural landscapes. With these works the experience of plein-air painting has proved invaluable, and if these imaginative works should be seen as the exploratory "cutting face" of the oeuvre, then the plein-air paintings would be the machinery that drives it. It is Rory’s belief that in order to progress he must continue to explore these differing areas of his work. From the quote below Rory regards the mentality as the imaginary work and the topographical paintings as the language.

- - -
"What is it that brings about such an ultimate connection between language and thinking? ...the mental development of the individual and his way of forming concepts depends on a high degree upon language. This makes us realise to what extent the same language means the same mentality."
- Albert Einstein 1954 "The common language of science"