artist statement
My studio practice is rooted in direct collaboration with the landscape. Working within the Surrey Hills, I create what I describe as nature mortes: paintings formed not only by my hand, but through the active participation of wind, rain, sunlight, and organic matter. I gather leaves, branches, and petals and arrange them on the canvas, allowing natural forces to intervene over time. Pigment, weather, and plant matter interact to produce surfaces shaped as much by chance and transformation as by intention.
Each work is an encounter between control and surrender. I am interested in what emerges when process is shared with the non-human world, when the landscape becomes co-author. The resulting works hold traces of growth, decay, and renewal, acting as both record and residue of fleeting environmental conditions. They function, for me, as contemporary memento mori, quiet reminders of impermanence and continuity within the living world.
The process is central to my practice. I am drawn to moments when unpredictability becomes part of the work itself, when materials behave in ways that cannot be fully directed. Each canvas becomes a site of exchange between intention and accident, between human gesture and natural force.
Ultimately, I see painting as a way of expanding perception. My work invites the viewer to re-engage with the landscape, to consider their relationship to the more-than-human world and to experience nature not as backdrop but as active presence. In dissolving the boundary between interior and exterior, I aim to create works that carry a sense of connection and attentiveness to the living environment.
For me, painting is also an exploration of consciousness, an ongoing inquiry into how attention, material, and environment shape one another. At its core, my practice is about relation: between self and landscape, control and chance, presence and change.
SELECT WORKS
2025 - 2026
Harmony Hambly-Smith Crocosmia (Falling Stars), 2025 Foliage and Acrylic on Canvas Signed, titled, and dated on Verso 182.88 cm x 121.92 cm / 72 in x 48 in
Harmony Hambly-Smith Sapindaceae (Soap Berry), 2025 Foliage and Acrylic on Canvas Signed, titled, and dated on Verso 120 cm x 90 cm / 47.2 in x 35.4 in
Harmony Hambly-Smith Koelreuteria (Golden Rain) 2025 Foliage and Acrylic on Canvas Signed, titled, and dated on Verso 90 cm x 120 cm / 35.4 in x 47.2 in
Harmony Hambly-Smith Helleborus 2025 Foliage and Acrylic on Canvas Signed, titled, and dated on Verso 81 cm x 103 cm / 32 in x 40.5 in
Harmony Hambly-Smith Dryopteris 2025 Foliage and Acrylic on Canvas Signed, titled, and dated on Verso 81 cm x 103 cm / 32 in x 40.5 in
Harmony Hambly-Smith. Boraginales 2025 Foliage and Acrylic on Canvas. Signed, titled, and dated on Verso 90 cm x 120 cm / 35.4 in x 47.2 in
Harmony Hambly-Smith Dicotyledons, 2025 Foliage and Acrylic on Canvas Signed, titled, and dated on Verso 100 cm x 50 cm / 39.3 in x 19.6 in
Harmony Hambly-Smith Geraniaceae, 2025 Foliage and Acrylic on Canvas Signed, titled, and dated on Verso 60 cm x 40 cm / 23.6 in x 15.7 in
Harmony Hambly-Smith Exochorda (Pearl) 2025 Foliage and Acrylic on Canvas Signed, titled, and dated on Verso 120 cm x 90 cm / 47.2 in x 35.4 in
ARTIST Biography
B: 1986, Sussex, United Kingdom
Lives and works: Surrey, United Kingdom
Education
BA (Joint Honours) Fine Art with History of Art and Architecture, University of Reading, 2009
Foundation Diploma, Chelsea College of Art, UNIVERSITY OF THE ARTS LONDON, 2004
Career and Practice
HARMONY’s practice has evolved over two decades, shaped by both her academic grounding in art history and her extensive curatorial and advisory experience within the global art world.
Between 2004 and 2009, while studying at Reading University, she curated and exhibited works for local art auctions supporting charitable causes. From 2009 to 2013, she joined Phillips Auction House in London as an Art Collection Manager, with her own paintings exhibited in the Phillips London Showroom.
From 2013 to 2020, she worked as Project Director, Curator, and Artist Mentor at de Pury Art Advisory, contributing to landmark charity auctions that collectively raised over $250 million for organisations including Elton John AIDS Foundation, Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, mtv staying alive, Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, fondation Beyeler, amfAR, unaids and UNICEF.
Her subsequent work as Artist Mentor and EXHIBITION Curator for Tusk Trust (2020–2022) deepened her commitment to environmental and conservation-focused art. Between 2020 and 2025, she has acted as Gallery Liaison and Art Sourcing Consultant for private collectors worldwide.
In November 2025, HARMONY presentED 28 new PAINTINGS, as part of a fundraising effort for Save The Children, continuing her long-standing engagement with art as a medium for cultural and humanitarian dialogue.
about
Working in close dialogue with the landscape, the artist creates her distinctive nature mortes; paintings formed not only by her hand but through the collaboration of wind, rain, and sunlight. Each work emerges from a process of both control and surrender, pigment mingles with the organic matter of the Surrey Hills, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty that serves as both her studio and her muse.
Through compositions that combine paint with gathered plant life, she invites the elements themselves to participate. Leaves, branches, and petals are arranged upon the canvas. over time, weather and light intervene, leaving spectral imprints as pigments react to the forces of nature. The resulting silhouettes, at once delicate and indelible, commemorate cycles of growth, decay, and renewal, preserving fleeting moments much like fossils or memento mori.
For the artist, the process is as vital as the result. “When everything aligns, the challenges become part of the work itself. That’s when it becomes truly interesting to me,” she explains. "Each canvas is an act of collaboration with nature, a record of surprise, chance, and endurance."
Her works encourage the viewer to return to nature, to experience their surroundings anew and to contemplate the fragile beauty of the living world. By drawing the gaze outward, she invites the landscape into the gallery, dissolving the boundary between interior and exterior, human and non-human. The result is an awakening, a deep sense of kinship with the animate Earth and an invitation to see through more-than-human eyes.
Ultimately, her practice is an exploration of consciousness and connection. “Painting can bring about a sense of unity,” she reflects, “and creates a portal into other realms of awareness.”
Curatorial Note
Rooted in years of academic study, curatorial practice, and personal immersion in nature, HARMONY’s work occupies a rare space within contemporary art. bridging aesthetic refinement with ecological resonance. Her canvases serve as living archives of natural process, where beauty emerges through exposure, transformation, and chance.
These works carry the sophistication of a seasoned artist whose journey through the world’s most respected art institutions has culminated in a practice defined by authenticity, patience, and reverence for the organic. In both concept and execution, her art reflects a mastery of material and philosophy that underpins its enduring value for collectors and institutions alike.
Artist Context
This latest body of work represents the culmination of years of exploration. an artistic language refined through study, experience, and deep immersion in both natural and cultural worlds. Her distinctive process - painting with nature rather than about it, speaks to an evolved sensibility that fuses aesthetic precision with environmental consciousness.
HARMONY'S works are simultaneously elemental and intellectual: living documents of the landscape itself. They resist replication, embodying time, weather, and transformation. This singular fusion of experience, process, and philosophy positions her firmly within the contemporary discourse of ecological and material art.
