Harold Mockford 

Harold (1932 – 2023) was one of the best-loved and best-known of the Sussex artists. He lived in Eastbourne until 1996 when he moved a short way along the coast to Newhaven. He is closely associated with Eastbourne and its landscape setting which often form the subject matter of his paintings. He was encouraged in his artistic practice by William Gear, artists and curator of the Towner In 2012 Towner held a major retrospective of Harold’s work to mark his eightieth birthday.

The port town of Newhaven provided decades of inspiration for his art: he and wife Margaret lived in a house with a bird’s eye view of the ferry, coastguard cottages and channel. He painted in many villages and downscapes in this small area of East Sussex, such as Berwick, Hamsey and Firle. His paintings are charged with a strangeness of colour as he sought to portray a profound sense of the sacred. There are memory subjects too, particularly when he was a boy in WWII, each imbued with his own sense of wonder. There are plenty of urban scenes of Eastbourne, as if to say his immediate world was all he needed and that he was profoundly effected by its familiar streets and buildings.

Harold’s work is held in the Government Art Collection, Towner and in many private collections.

Browse available works by Harold Mockford.

Contact Natasha with any enquiries.

<-Back to Artists