A day in the life - The Outsider Art of Ian Frederick Harris

There’s absolutely no doubt in my mind that every, (that’s EVERY), home should have a piece of original art hanging on the wall.

And the reason I so adamant in that view is simple.

EVERYONE IS AN INDIVIDUAL. WE ARE NOT SHEEP.

Unfortunately, in today’s world, what with social media and the desperate FOMO (Fear of Missing Out), SHEEP are what we are in great danger of becoming. The need to express ourselves, the need to tell our community WHO WE ARE has become a matter of great urgency. Otherwise, we will succumb.

We will find ourselves sinking into the morass that is the unthinking masses.

The mass that allows so-called Public Figures (politicians, influencers and the like) to do the thinking for us. We will fall in the unhealthy grasp of those that tell us what to like, what to buy and even how to judge our fellow men and woman.

To own an original art may seem like a minor thing but is one important way of speaking out, a way of showing your individuality. It is a STATEMENT. And that statement says loud and clear.

I/We have it hanging in our house because it means something to us.

If you think hanging a tattered flag from a lamppost is a statement, then I feel sorry for you, because that is something someone told you to do. Not only that, but they also told you what it is meant to mean.

A piece of original art that YOU chose…now that’s thinking for yourself.

An attempt at explaining my artwork.

I work at the point where certainty gives way to surprise.

My paintings are built through layers of acrylic, oil, and mixed media, but they’re really about something more open-ended than technique alone: the feeling of discovery. I’m drawn to work that changes as you spend time with it — images that reveal themselves slowly, where color, texture, and gesture carry as much meaning as any obvious subject.

I don’t set out to control every outcome. Instead, I let the painting lead, responding to what appears on the surface and allowing the work to develop intuitively. That process gives each piece its own energy, its own sense of tension, and its own quiet surprise. Sometimes the result leans abstract, sometimes it suggests a figure, a landscape, or a memory, but I prefer to leave room for interpretation. I want the viewer to bring their own experience to the work.

A lot of my paintings live in contrast: calm and unrest, clarity and ambiguity, structure and instinct. That balance reflects how I see the world — layered, shifting, and full of things that can’t be explained too neatly. I’m interested in how art can hold more than one emotion at once, and how a piece can feel both personal and open at the same time.

If my work resonates with you, I hope it’s because it invites you to pause, look a little longer, and find your own way in.

Category: A day in the life

Every home should have a piece of original art hanging on the wall

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An attempt at explaining my artwork.

Like this: