About Alce Harfield

Alce was born in Sussex in 1966 to a very creative family. Her father, Geoffrey , before he retired was a commercial photographer, lecturer and picture framer and her mother Joan, Head of Art at a local convent school. Her brother and sister went on to study Architecture and Printmaking.

Alce completed a Pre-degree course at Worthing College of Art, before gaining a 2:1 BA (Hons) Degree in Interior Design at Leicester Polytechnic. She moved to Bristol in 1988 to design pubs for Courage Ltd and then went on to design office and shop interiors for another design practice. Following redundancy she worked as a freelance designer in the centre of Bristol on a number of commercial and domestic projects.

In the early 90’s Alce owned The Silly Fish Shops in Bristol and Bath selling her paintings and plasterwork based on the theme of fish. After 10 years with rising costs she closed the last one to concentrate on her painting. A move to Somerset from Bristol allowed her to build her dream studio and live the ‘good life’!

In August 2003 baby Cuba arrived and baby number two, Bali was born in Nov 2004. She is just about managing to juggle painting with parenting but finds her new role as a mother is as fulfilling as her work.

Early in 2004 she had two cataract operations which gave her a completely new perspective to her work!

Alce’s main incentive for painting is still foremost the pleasure it brings and a continual fascination with colour and texture.

She is influenced by many artists from Picasso to Turner, from Wallasse Ting to Raul Duffy and is inspired by the use of colour by Jake Sutton.

Eager to experiment she is well known for her wild skies, seascapes, cityscapes and her first love, bright florals. A brush with abstract art is still developing!

The development of a uniquely formulated three dimensional acrylic with light reflecting qualities has taken her work in a more contemporary direction with an emphasis on textural layers and additional mixed media from resin bumble bees to natural skeleton leaves.

She has been published by De Montford Fine Art, Woodmansterne and has sold original paintings to Soloman and Whitehead.

Alce Harfield Artist About page