Artist’s Statement

“We live in times that can use some levity. I create playful observational art that strives to uplift, amuse, evoke nostalgia - and elicit a smile. I enjoy capturing the “oddly ordinary”.

“In my ‘Friends’ collection, characters only appear odd until you encounter them in everyday activities; then they become real and “oddly familiar”. These old friends of mine, captured over years of pen and ink sketches, are treated with great affection, and pop up in street scenes and in large canvases. The small painting above each character invite some interaction and imagination; for example does the one above the traveller looking at his watch suggest his impatience to go ... where? And why?”

“Details in my work are introduced to engage and delight. These may be actual storefronts in streetscapes, a crushed Coke can under a taxi’s wheel, a divot tool in a golfer’s lapel with St Andrew’s logo, a British wrought-iron fence, pencils in a pocket, a Harley Davidson badge as a belt buckle, or meticulously rendered shoes and ties. I am reminded of a quote Coco Chanel asserted back in the 20’s, ‘A lot of serious work goes into successful frivolity’ ”.

“As a result, my art may combine elements from various times and from diverse sources. All details are authentic to the time period being portrayed; in Montreal Newsvendor c.1954, for example, mastheads and wordmarks were re-created from archived vintage images.”

“In my ‘Architectural’ series – in flat art and totems – I bring some unexpected colour and details to the buildings around us. Perhaps a reaction to the “form follows function” mantra of years ago which often excluded delightful elements as superfluous. The flat art is created so it can be folded on its symmetrical facade onto a 3-D frame and hardboard resulting in a totem.

“In my ‘Streetscape’ series’ my old friends weave in and out of my work (as old friends often should). They are depicted in black and white with some spot colour, and in this way seem
to retain their individual space in the anonymous city setting. “In the end, if I can engage the viewer, affect a discovery of subtle details and evoke a smile,
I feel I have succeeded.”

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Harry’s painting craft developed as part of architectural studies under Gentile Tondino, RCA, a member of the Canadian Group of Painters and a colleague of Arthur Lismer (Group of Seven) as well as Gordon Webber, who himself had studied with Laszlo Moholy-Nagy at the New Bauhaus, Chicago (later the Institute of Design) and was also a colleague of Arthur Lismer’s. Lismer is a prominent Canadian painter – in June 2023, a small oil on wood (11½x16”) sold for $432,000 Cdn.

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Kristen T. Woodward >Professor of Art, Albright College >Resident Curator, Artists2artists
The series “Art Deco as Flat Art” paintings, as well as the totem structures, delight in their explicatory charm. The beguiling amount of detailed features and light tinted pastel hues keep the structures from succumbing to straight diagrammatic depictions, as they elevate and personify the architecture. The strong contrasting zigzag horizontal patterns nicely break up the thrusting verticality of this particular image. 
Smaller inclusions, such as the tiny hot air balloon at the top, add humor as they are dwarfed in scale by their building structures. I see a strong kinship in your figurative works, which bridge cartoonish animation with more serious and satirical portraiture.  The individual caricatures poke fun at familiar types, but do so in
a warm, affable manner.

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The Big Bang Theory
Sheldon Cooper:  But for the record, I only drink hot chocolate in months with an R in them.
Howard Wolowitz: Why?
Sheldon Cooper:  What's life without whimsy.

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Sherlock Holmes quote:
Quote from a Sherlock Holmes' story "The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone"
by Arthur Conan Doyle.
“Life is Full of Whimsical Happenings, Watson”