KATHARINE LE HARDY IF WISHES WERE HORSES
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KATHARINE LE HARDY IF WISHES WERE HORSES
Image (detail) inside covers Let them Play, 2020 Oil on canvas 120 x 240 cm
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This body of work by Katharine Le Hardy looks at the history of play and the elemental simplicity of this aspect of childhood. Through play children learn and develop in every way; cognitive, physical, creative, social, and imaginative. Our childhood memories often orientate around play; most of us will feature a memory of a seaside holiday or a heady moment in a playground. The most vivid autobiographical memories tend to be of emotional events, which are likely to be recalled more often and with more clarity and detail than neutral events. Our more formed childhood memories tend to orientate around moments of heightened excitement, a ponderous rope swing or a first success on a bicycle. Memories of childhood, transitory and emotionally skewed, are captured here as rosetinted snatches of a lost time. These memories feel nostalgic and fantastical in equal parts. Photograph albums of family holidays trigger nostalgic recall of carefree days. Nostalgia is associated with a yearning for the past, its personalities, possibilities, and events. It comes from the Greek nóstos meaning "homecoming" and álgos meaning "pain" or "ache. It is a sentimentality for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations. Nostalgia's definition has changed greatly over time, for centuries it was considered a potentially debilitating condition. The modern view is that nostalgia is an independent, and even positive, emotion that can improve mood, increase social connectedness, enhance positive self-regard, and provide existential meaning. Childhood nostalgia is not dependent on our individual memory, it is influenced by what contemporary society choses to exalt. Simplicity is something that many of us have been extoling during the past year or so. With reduced opportunity to travel and gather, people have been focused on their immediate surroundings, returning to simple pastimes, and often neglected activities from childhood and the associated joy. Also implicit in these paintings and the freedom of childhood is the notion of time. Time to play, time to be absorbed, time to wish. We hope these paintings encourage you to take the time to wallow in the affirmative experience of nostalgic memory.
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Dreamland, 2022 Oil on canvas 150 x 110 cm 6
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Let them Play, 2020 Oil on canvas 120 x 240 cm 8
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Wishes, 2021 Oil on canvas 150 x 120 cm 10
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Game of dares, 2021 Oil on canvas 152.5 x 122 cm 12
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I am a dreamer, 2021 Oil on canvas 120 x 150 cm 14
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Run wild, 2021 Oil on canvas 140.5 x 110 cm 16
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Play matters, 2021 Oil on canvas 140.5 x 110 cm 18
Follow the leader, 2021 Oil on canvas 120 x 100 cm 19
Come follow me, 2021 Oil on canvas 110 x 140 cm 20
Down by the bank, 2021 Oil on canvas 120 x 100 cm 21
Boys of summer, 2021 Oil on canvas 90 x 80 cm 22
What little boys are made of, 2021 Oil on wood panel 50 x 70 cm 23
Freedom and time, 2021 Oil on wood panel 70 x 50 cm 24
Take to the trees, 2021 Oil on wood panel 70 x 50 cm 25
Halcyon days, 2021 Oil on wood panel 30 x 20 cm 26
Small things, 2021 Oil on wood panel 50 x 50 cm 27
Memories not dreams, 2021 Oil on wood panel 30.5 x 30.5 cm 28
Holding hands and skimming stones, 2021 Oil on wood panel 30 x 30 cm 29
Catch the wind, 2021 Oil on wood panel 25 x 20 cm 30
Billy Boy, 2021 Oil on wood panel 18 x 13 cm
Play out, 2021 Oil on wood panel 18 x 13 cm 31
A wild thing, Puddle jumping Two tigers, Made of gold Oil on wood panel 18 x 13 cm 32
One single yesterday, Ever open doors Bare necessities, Little boy blue Oil on wood panel 18 x 13 cm 33
Mused a moment, 2021 Oil on wood panel 15 x 10 cm 34
What shaped me, 2021 Oil on wood panel 15 x 10 cm
Gone fishing, 2021 Oil on wood panel 15 x 10 cm
Two can play that game, 2021 Oil on wood panel 13 x 18 cm Bear hunt, 2021 Oil on wood panel 13 x 18 cm 35
Eye spy, 2021 Oil on wood panel 25 x 20 cm 36
Published in September 2021 by Candida Stevens Gallery on the occasion of an exhibition featuring the work of Katharine Le Hardy Catalogue © Candida Stevens Gallery Images © Katharine Le Hardy Text © Candida Stevens Photography © Dan Stevens All rights reserved
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