Henrietta Harris

Your Tomorrow

The Greatest

Henrietta Harris is a New Zealand based artist that works in watercolors, gouache,  pencil, and waterproof pens. Harris does a mix of commercial illustration work, commissions, and her own projects. She was raised on a vineyard in Auckland, where she was shy and a little weird. In 2006, Harris graduated from Aukland University of Technology with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. She has done commercial work for Flying Nun Records, Amnesty International, Four Paws Media and Vice Magazine.

The illustrator works from photographs that she takes of her subjects, reference images from books, or the internet. She then may altar the images in Photoshop or use her scanner. All the paintings and drawings are done by hand. 

The series, Hold Still, is a collection of portraits that look like their faces are melting. Perhaps, they look more like they are on an old television that can’t get service, so the faces keep getting distorted. The faces in some images look like part of their brains are getting blown out from their heads. It is a creepy image, yet it is fascinating at the same time. It is a sort of fantasy world where the viewer is mixed between horrified and amazed at what is happening before their eyes. Hold Still is done in a range of pastels with the background being either bright or dark. This lends to the mood Harris is trying to create with each image. The illustrator claims that she does not want to explain to much of her paintings, because she does not want to give away the mystery of them. I think that is what I like about them, they are mysterious. I wonder about them later in the day, long after having looked at them. That is what makes this a great series.