Harriet Mead
Encyclopedia
Harriet Rebecca Mead is an English Wildlife Artist specialising in metal sculptures.
She received formal art education during a foundation year at St Albans College, followed by a degree in Fine Art at the Norwich School of Art.
Mead’s work is inspired by animals and birds. From an early age she was encouraged to observe and develop a keen interest in British wildlife due to the influence of her late father, Chris Mead
, who was a well known author and broadcaster. Harriet uses personal experience and direct observation to provide inspiration for her work. The countryside and wildlife around her home in rural Norfolk and her travels to various places around the world, including Asia and Africa, provide subject matter for her work.
After showing at its annual show for several years, Mead was elected a full member of the internationally renowned Society of Wildlife Artists
(SWLA). In 2004, she was elected to Council of the SWLA. Harriet has won the Society’s prestigious Capmark Award in 2007 and was runner-up in 2006. In 2009, she was elected as the Society's President, making her the youngest and first woman in its 47 year history.
Although predominately a sculptor, Mead also produces drawings and prints, but focuses on using steel to create her sculptures. Harriet’s steel sculptures fall into two categories the “true-to-life” form made predominantly from sheet steel that resemble as accurately as possible the species being created, and “found objects” in which Mead uses everyday objects to produce an abstract form of the animal.
Harriet tends to work to commission, but does maintain a few examples of her work in key galleries. She seems to be able to tackle any subject from the natural world.
Harriet recognises that an appreciation of wildlife and the natural world cannot be taken for granted and she has used her art to promote and raise funs for conservation and animal charities. Most notably amongst the organisations she has supported are The Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust, the Countryside Education Foundation and the Suffolk Horse Society.
Together with other leading international wildlife artists Harriet has taken part in two Artists for Nature Foundation projects, which brings artists together to promote and raises funds for conservation projects around the world, including the Great Fen Project in Cambridgeshire
, UK and the Hula Valley, Israel
.
Harriet has produced two large-scale public art pieces. One is the Suffolk Trinity which includes a life-size Suffolk Horse, a Suffolk Ram and a Suffolk Redpoll Bull providing an impressive feature at the entrance of Trinity Park (the Suffolk show ground), near Ipswich. The other is a life-size heavy horse being led by a man at Dromore, West Tyrone, Northern Ireland.
She received formal art education during a foundation year at St Albans College, followed by a degree in Fine Art at the Norwich School of Art.
Mead’s work is inspired by animals and birds. From an early age she was encouraged to observe and develop a keen interest in British wildlife due to the influence of her late father, Chris Mead
Chris Mead
Christopher John Mead was a popular British ornithologist, author and broadcaster, and an influential member of the British Trust for Ornithology ....
, who was a well known author and broadcaster. Harriet uses personal experience and direct observation to provide inspiration for her work. The countryside and wildlife around her home in rural Norfolk and her travels to various places around the world, including Asia and Africa, provide subject matter for her work.
After showing at its annual show for several years, Mead was elected a full member of the internationally renowned Society of Wildlife Artists
Society of Wildlife Artists
The Society of Wildlife Artists is a British organisation for artists who paint or draw wildlife, founded in 1964. Its founder President was Sir Peter Scott, the current President of the society is British artist Andrew Stock....
(SWLA). In 2004, she was elected to Council of the SWLA. Harriet has won the Society’s prestigious Capmark Award in 2007 and was runner-up in 2006. In 2009, she was elected as the Society's President, making her the youngest and first woman in its 47 year history.
Her work
Harriet tends to work to commission, but does maintain a few examples of her work in key galleries. She seems to be able to tackle any subject from the natural world.
Art and conservation
Together with other leading international wildlife artists Harriet has taken part in two Artists for Nature Foundation projects, which brings artists together to promote and raises funds for conservation projects around the world, including the Great Fen Project in Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire is a county in England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the northeast, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the west...
, UK and the Hula Valley, Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
.
Public art