Rolf Harris leads the way to a tiny room that serves as dressing room and makeshift studio. We are at the animal hospital in Finsbury Park, north London, and the most famous artist in the UK (according to a 1992 poll) is taking a break from neglected cats and dogs to talk about his favourite subject: the Impressionists.

His four-part television series, dealing with the impressionists Van Gogh, Degas and Monet and the postimpressionist Gauguin, is in the final stages of production and, if the phrase didn’t sound so solemn, Rolf Harris could be described as a man with a mission.

“The important thing,” he says, “is that every one of us has an artistic side, yet 98 per cent of us come out of school knowing we’ll never paint again. People say, ‘I couldn’t paint to save my life.’ I say, ‘Can you remember when you decided that?’ And quite often they can. It’s sad. At four you know you can do anything. Picasso spent all his life trying to get back to the simplicity of a four-year-old. And look at Van Gogh. What he did was all ‘wrong’, but it’s vibrant and alive.”

• Picture: self-portrait in the style of Van Gogh

• Rolf Harris will have an exhibition of work, some inspired by these programmes, at the Halcyon Gallery in London, in spring 2002. Details on 020 7491 7440

  Read the full version of this article in TES Friday magazine, 16 November 2001

  
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