Biography

Harriet was born in 1981 in London to a Costa Rican mother and British father. She decided she wanted to be an artist at the age of 3 and started selling paintings while still at school. She studied Modern and Medieval Languages at Cambridge University where she was involved in the Cambridge Arts Society and her passion for art took her to Spain to study Fine Art at the University of Seville. There she was heavily inspired by Expressionism.

In 2005 Harriet decided to broaden her knowledge in the arts and fly to Los Angeles to study acting for film. On her return she worked as an actress, most notably playing Raquel Clayton, a blind artist, in Akram Hassan’s award-winning film Bereft of Colours (2006). As human rights issues are very important to her, she produced the first play to be staged at Amnesty International’s Human Rights Action Centre in 2007. The production was Reader by the Chilean playwright, Ariel Dorfman. His work Exorcising Terror: The Incredible Unending Trial of Augusto Pinochet was the inspiration for her painting Aftermath of a Dictator. Harriet has also worked as Assistant Art Director for a film directed by Denis Lawson.

Harriet has been working as a full time artist since 2008, painting and exhibiting her work as well as undertaking commissions. She has published a series of paintings in a book called Changing Lives (2010). She continues to live and work in London and has been furthering her studies in oil painting under the direction of the artist Christiane Kubrick and is currently at the Hampstead School of Art studying under the guidance of the artist Valerie Wiffen.