Abstracted with almost hyper-realistic detail, Sarah Harvey.

Added: 2026-05-17

[00:00:10]Today's artist is Sarah Harvey.

[00:00:13]Sarah Harvey was born in London in 1981.

[00:00:18]She completed her education at Chelsea School of Art and Newcastle University, graduating in 2004.

[00:00:26]In 2003 Harvey won the Bartlett Travel Scholarship whilst studying at Newcastle University.

[00:00:34]She subsequently visited Florence and the surrounding areas of Tuscany, and it was during this trip she happened upon a green swimming pool that has inspired much of her work to date.

[00:00:45]Sarah Harvey has been painting images of herself in the water for many years.

[00:00:51]Time and again, her body appears immersed in the water – refracted, distorted, liquefied, and abstracted with almost hyper-real attention to detail.

[00:01:02]But as her work has developed, it has become clear that these paintings are much more than the tantalizing, exotic images that they at first appear to be.

[00:01:12]Beneath their beautiful veneer, Sarah’s works have come to represent a frank and unflinching autobiography of an ambitious young woman developing as an artist, grappling with her success, exploring her personal life, and translating it all into paint with almost obsessive discipline of self-examination.

[00:01:31]Taken together, her paintings act like a psychological profile of a 21st century woman, replete with all the sexual and power undertones that this implies.

[00:01:43]Sarah Harvey said; "My paintings of figures floating are predominantly self-portraits.

[00:01:49]I aim to create paintings that arouse both a sense of well-being and pleasure, whilst simultaneously suggesting notions of insecurity, fantasy and sexuality.

[00:02:01]Entirely suspended by the water, the human forms are fragmented by the Ripples and swirls created by the water, abstracting them, and often with implausible results such as the appearance of disfiguration or distortion.

[00:02:15]I have become increasingly excited about the abstract elements in these works, and the interplay between light, colour and water.

[00:02:24]The emerging patterns are becoming more apparent and dominant, drawing the eye not only towards the main focal point of the human form, but also to the surrounding areas, which are of equal significance.

[00:02:37]I am greatly influenced by Francis Bacons Carcass and crucifixion paintings, and of course by the work of Jenny Saville.

[00:02:46]Both of these figurative artists are intensely intrigued by the imagery of flesh in both ugly and magnificently beautiful ways."

[00:08:35]Thank you so much for watching our video and see you in the following video.