A Promise of Daffodils is all oil on canvas - a photorealist painting of a cloudy sky that contrasts against the coarser brushstrokes of the fields below. 

The Cornish-based artist Kerry Harding, has created many different manifestations of this field over the last 4 years. It is a daffodil field near the artist's home in Cornwall. One day, as a creative exercise in figurative painting, Kerry began painting a daffodil on an unused canvas. The plan was to erase the painting when the exercise was complete. However, the yellow pigment of the daffodil bled through the canvas. 

"When I realised there were interesting stains of the field patterns pushed through on the reverse of the canvas I knew I was going to take it off the stretcher and swap it round. I often do this with paintings as I like the contrast of historical and immediate applications of paint."

Kerry then built up from this accidental mark making and created the rich colour and rolling hills of the final image with yellow hints of the daffodil creeping through. This experiential approach to painting encourages her to successfully portray the textures and atmospheres of the Cornish landscape.

"Paint as matter continues to be my hero; the expression of painting itself will always be at the forefront of my work."

Accolades
Kerry Harding graduated with a BFA at The Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art Oxford University in 1994. She completed a MA at Falmouth University in 2003. Her work has been exhibited widely since 1998 including in Miami, Berlin, Australia and South Africa. She is a Tutor at St Ives School of Painting.