Katharine Le Hardy

Katharine Le Hardy graduated with a BA (Hons) in Fine Art from the University of the West of England, Bristol (2000–2003). Her awards include the Society of Women Artists Award (2019), the Gilchrist Fisher Award (2007), and the Royal Bath & West Scholarship (2007).

Katharine Le Hardy’s paintings explore the emotional resonance of landscape, creating scenes that exist between memory and imagination. Rooted in personal experience, her work draws from photographs, recollections and collected imagery to form environments that feel both familiar and dreamlike. Influences from the Brazilian rainforest merge with imagined visions of the Canadian wilderness, where dense foliage opens onto expansive valleys and winding rivers move through quiet, contemplative spaces.

Le Hardy’s process is intuitive and layered. Working across multiple canvases at once, she allows compositions to emerge gradually through gestural mark-making and repeated reworking. Using thinned oils applied with brushes, scrapers and other tools, surfaces are built slowly, with forms revealing themselves through movement, texture and instinct. 

STUDIO: SURREY, UK