Harriet Whitby

Harriet Whitby (b. 1997) is a Cornwall-based artist whose work explores relationships between light, people, and place. Growing up in Bath, she later moved to Falmouth to study BA (Hons) Fine Art at Falmouth University, graduating in 2022. Cornwall has since become central to her life and practice, shaping the environments she observes and returns to in her work.

Her paintings focus on everyday interactions between people and their surroundings, often depicting cropped or fragmented views rather than complete scenes. By isolating small moments and unusual angles, she draws attention to details that might otherwise go unnoticed; reflections on water, gestures, shifting light, and the edges of lived spaces. These partial perspectives reflect an interest in how environments are experienced in fragments, shaped by movement, memory, and familiarity.

Whitby works from observation and collected imagery, developing compositions that feel intimate and immediate. Her practice is rooted in lived experience, with recent works reflecting time spent on and around the water, where daily routines and natural rhythms become subjects in their own right. Now based in Cornwall, she continues to draw inspiration from coastal life, considering it both subject and home.