Rolf Harris’ love of art began as early as he can remember. Even at Primary School whenever anyone asked him “What are you going to be when you grow up?” his immediate response was “An artist … AND a good one!”
Rolf left Australia aged 22 to study painting in England. The trip was financed by and large by the four exhibitions of paintings he had held previously in his home town of Perth.
A chance meeting at Earl’s Court tube station with Australian impressionist painter ‘Bill’ Hayward Veal changed his life. As a teenager in Perth, Western Australia, Veal’s work in the local art gallery had impressed Rolf so much that on a trip to Sydney with the West Australian swimming team, he had tried, unsuccessfully, to meet Bill with a view to being taught by him. At the time of their meeting in London Bill was running an art course, and though Rolf couldn’t afford it he went along anyway. “In this class I tried to impress him with thickly daubed oils on canvas paper, but Bill gave me a real canvas and told me to set up some bottles and other items that I would like to paint. He gave me a brush, some burnt sienna, some rag and a bottle of turpentine and told me to see how little paint I could use. Instead of painting isolated individual parts he told me to tackle the whole canvas all the time. I still do this now, starting off very rough and rugged and then refining later. After the course, Rolf became Veal’s protégé.
Rolf Harris prints are the most likeley of todays artists to increase in value.
