I studied an MA at the Royal College of Art in Illustration, after achieving a first-class degree in Illustration at Maidstone College of Art.
I live with my family in a Georgian house surrounded by trees and birds in rural Kent. All my life I have loved to make and create; whether it is pictures, prints, little books, illustrated books, textiles, cards and 3d objects. I have always been excited by different artistic approaches and processes in painting, print and 3d work, and enjoy developing my own ways of working.
Inspiration
My inspiration comes from my surroundings, the garden, the countryside and wildlife. All the work in my shop is my own design and comes from my own ideas. I take inspiration from all sorts of English art. There is some new interpretation from old vernacular designs but I never copy the work of other artists. I am very interested in houses and gardens and the atmosphere they have, the seasons too, as well as antique toys, folk art, literature, film and classical music. I love the idea of creating a sense of place.
A very small cottage industry
I really enjoy developing ideas and making them into products. This has now evolved into Elizabeth Harbour Designs.
I am helped by my husband Llewellyn Thomas who is also a professional artist. We have been creative collaborators for a very long time and our house is full of the collections of paintings, original prints and objects that we have put together since we set up our first home. We discuss ideas for new additions to the range and test them out in our own environment to see how well they work. Everything in my shop is made in England.
The story of the wooden decorations
The start of the wooden hanging decorations was a small range that were completely individually hand painted by myself. As I had been an illustrator where everything I did was made for printed reproduction, it seemed that if I wanted products that had the quality and individuality of that work, then designing for print was the way forward. All the designs in the current range – that number almost 200 now – originated as hand-drawn and painted artworks. They each go through a long design and prototyping process. We are very conscious that the designs have to be absolutely right. The drawing, the colour and the silhouette involve a huge amount of time and thought. The dream is to create decorations that will be treasured.
