ABOUT THE ARTIST

Hazel Soan is a British artist working out of studios in London and Cape Town and on location throughout the world. She paints in watercolour and oils and is known for her direct wet-into-wet watercolour approach and her use of rich pigment and strong contrasts of light and shade in her paintings of figures, Africa, wildlife and action. After graduating from art college, Hazel launched directly into her professional career, exhibiting in London and the UK, Venezuela, Zimbabwe and South Africa. Her reputation as a watercolourist grew quickly, with much of her work going into print during the art boom of the 1980s. She has had numerous solo shows and participated in mixed shows such as Royal Academy, Barbican, The Mall Galleries. Her work is represented in private and public collections worldwide, including the National Portrait Gallery, The Lister, Chelsea and

Westminster Hospital, The Ritz, other London and international hotels, the British Embassy in Ankara and the EU Delegation in Windhoek. Hazel is a natural communicator; in the ’90s she began writing about her passion for watercolour. She presented two seasons of Anglia TV’S Splash of Colour on mainstream television, followed by her expert role on Channel 4’s Watercolour Challenge. Her passion for painting and her knowledge of the properties of pigments is shared through books, magazine articles, DVD film, workshops, lectures and painting holidays. She is constantly in demand and has taken artists into the African Bush, India and throughout Europe, taught in royal palaces, on the QE2 and for the EU High Commission. She is a respected judge for The Artist Art Club Competition and DSWF’S Wildlife Artist of the Year. Her work can be seen at her London studio gallery and at M1 Fine Art Galleries, London.