Rory Harrington

Born in Cape Town in 1966, there was never any doubt in Rory’s mind that, one day, he would pursue a career as a professional artist.  Unfortunately, it took him almost four decades to realize that ambition.
 
“As a kid I was fascinated with drawing and painting.  The whole process seemed magical, almost otherworldly.  But money and opportunity were limited, and I was unable to study art formally.  Instead, I spent most of my childhood and teens trying to teach myself the fundamentals of art.  Not very successfully, I might add!  I made every mistake in the book.  But despite all the mistakes, or maybe because of them, I slowly started to develop an artistic style and vision that I felt comfortable with.”     

On leaving school Rory was conscripted into the South African Army for mandatory National Service. 

“Being shouted at for two years did wonders for focusing my mind.  I left the army absolutely determined to fulfill my ambition of becoming an artist.  There was one small problem, though.  No money.  I quickly realized that big plans and an empty wallet make very bad bedfellows.  At twenty-one my choices were simple; get a paying job or starve.  So I took the first job that was offered to me--as a salesman--with the intention of working for a couple of years just to save enough money to pay for my art studies.  And somehow that temporary job turned into a twenty year corporate career.”

Throughout this period, however, art remained Rory’s abiding passion.  In his spare time he experimented with various media, including oils, acrylics, pastels, and airbrushing.  Being entirely self-taught, his unique style is the product of this continuous experimentation.  “I’m a student of the Trial-and-Error school of art,” he jokes.      

In 2005, he realized that it was time for a fundamental change.  “My corporate career was starting to feel like a form of slow suicide, and I realized that I just didn’t want to spend the second half of my life as I had the first.  That’s when I resigned to practice art fulltime.”

Although he doesn’t limit himself to any specific themes, the two predominant subjects of his work are the animal kingdom and the vibrant street life of Asia.  Both are portrayed with sensitivity and candor in meticulous and revealing detail.  Each new series of work starts with weeks of careful research and observation in the field.  Scores of working sketches, reference photographs, and field notes are collected.  A final compositional sketch is then completed for each work.  This forms the basis for a detailed line drawing on paper, which is then transferred by hand onto cold-pressed illustration board.  After that the shading and tonal values of each work are gradually built up in successive layers using graphite pencils.  The process is time-consuming and labour intensive.  It takes weeks to finish a single work, with many of them taking over two hundred hours to complete.  As a result Rory is only able to produce a limited number of works every year.

Although he still occasionally works in colour, it’s a monochrome palette that is his first love.  “I think that working in black-and-white allows me to explore the character of my subjects in greater depth, and with a degree of subtlety, that is difficult to achieve with colour.  I always try to produce work that is visually striking, technically accomplished, and most important, emotionally engaging for the viewer.  Of course, I don’t always get it right!  But therein lies the challenge.  And the added challenge of trying to achieve all that without the benefit of colour is really exciting.”

It’s this challenge, and the overwhelmingly positive response to his work, that keeps him motivated.  “The greatest feeling in the world is when people buy your artwork.  It’s the ultimate endorsement and I never take it for granted.”

Although he returns to Africa regularly, Rory now lives and works in Asia.