Rolf Harris

I illustrated the side of a grand piano for DeMontfort Fine Art, with a long complex scene partly made up from my head, partly inspired by photos of country scenes from Northern New South Wales. These photographs showed a very green landscape, but I had in mind a parched, dry scene mainly composed of reds and oranges. When I had finished it, I really loved it so much that I immediately coated a long canvas with orange paint so that I could have the pleasure again of painting a similar scene, but in a more right-angled oblong shape. As I eventually got around to working on it, the excitement of painting the scene on the piano was long months away, but as soon as I started, the thrill was there again. I hadn’t realized that the piano was so much longer than my canvas, and so I couldn’t duplicate the piano work of art. It was, of necessity, shorter, but I think, exactly as much fun to paint. I don’t think it would have worked as well had I made all the paddocks green instead of that orangey-red.