About | Bethan Harris

About

Bethan Harris (b. 2000) is an artist based in Newcastle upon Tyne, specialising in drawing and painting. Since achieving a BA (Hons) in Fine Art from Newcastle University in 2022, her work has been exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts, Mall Galleries, the Oxo Tower, and Willesden Gallery in London, as well as at the Hatton Gallery, Gallagher & Turner, and Globe Gallery in Newcastle. In April 2024, she was awarded the Young Person's Award for the Derwent Art Prize in London and was recently shortlisted for the North East Emerging Artist Award 2025. Alongside participating in artist residencies across the UK, Bethan has completed public commissions for Newcastle University, Durham University, the National Trust, Derwent, and the Great North Museum in Newcastle.

Bethan’s practice focuses on drawing, with a distinctive emphasis on using colour as a tool for creating imaginative landscapes. She works intuitively, employing a repetitive mark-making style that repeats a singular motion, an act that becomes meditative in nature. This rhythmic approach allows her to enter a contemplative state, where focus and presence guide the development of the work.

Bethan’s practice blends observation with abstraction, capturing the ephemeral essence of nature through its movements, textures, and the shifting play of light. She documents seasonal cycles and nature’s shifting patterns. Drawing inspiration from personal memories and local history, she uses her process not only to explore external landscapes but also to reflect on internal states of being.

She works predominantly with Unison Colour pastels, handmade in Northumberland, where past artist residencies have deepened her relationship with the surrounding landscape, a place that now grounds her inspiration and colour palette.

EDUCATION

2024-2025, Collective Studio, The Newbridge Project, UK

2022, Intensive Course, Royal Drawing School, UK

2018-2022, BA Fine Art, Newcastle University, UK

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2026 The Pastel Society Annual Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London, UK

2025 VARC Full Circle Exhibition, Highgreen, Northumberland, UK

2025 Summer Exhibition, The Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK

2025 Summer Exhibition, The Old School Gallery, Alnmouth, UK

2025 Summer Exhibition, Redcar Contemporary Art Gallery, Redcar, UK

2025 The Pastel Society Annual Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London, UK

2024 The Newbridge ‘Open’ Open, The Newbridge Project, Newcastle, UK